(DCNF)—Republican Rep. John Curtis of Utah, who recently jumped into the race for outgoing Sen. Mitt Romney’s seat, has raked in thousands of dollars in donations for his congressional bids from the green energy industry, according to campaign finance records.
Curtis launched a campaign for Senate on Jan. 2 after previously ruling it out shortly after Romney announced he would not seek another term in the upper chamber, adding to the primary already chock-full of prominent Republicans. The congressman, who has split from many on the right about climate change, brought in thousands from green energy organization’s and companies’ affiliated political action committees (PACs) during his four House bids, Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings show.
“Congressman Curtis is one of the leaders of a small but vocal minority in the Republican Party that thinks that the Republicans need to capitulate on the issue of climate change for fear of losing younger voters, and the survey data simply just doesn’t bear that out,” Tom Pyle, president of the American Energy Alliance, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Curtis is the chair of the Conservative Climate Caucus, which states its goal is to reduce emissions while not limiting consumer choices. The caucus aims to inform members of “climate policies and legislation consistent with conservative values.”
The congressman believes that curbing climate change will bolster the economy rather than hinder it through promoting energy innovation in the private sector, like carbon capture, according to Politico.
The Bipartisan Climate Action’s political arm has given $13,500 in donations to the congressman’s campaign from 2021 to 2023, FEC data shows. The group is focused on reelecting members who push “significant, enduring, and bipartisan legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
Between 2020 and 2022, the Environmental Defense Action Fund’s affiliated PAC donated $5,500 to Curtis’ congressional campaign, according to FEC filings. The nonprofit’s political arm, which is committed to “electing climate champions,” encourages the Biden administration to promote electric vehicles and reduce emissions.
Sunnova Energy’s corporate PAC contributed $1,000 to Curtis’s efforts in May 2023, along with another $1,000 donation in late September, just after he announced he was considering running for Senate, according to FEC filings. The companyallegedly took advantage of elderly customers who were near-death by convincing them to sign expensive multi-decade rooftop solar contracts, according to The Washington Free Beacon.
“A lot of those companies are looking for a way to try to create a sense of bipartisanship in the sort of climate agenda. And when you have a member in the Republican Party that makes overtures about climate change, naturally, they will gravitate towards him,” Pyle said.
The campaign also brought in donations from the Solar Energy Industries Association’s affiliated PAC to the tune of $12,500 between 2022 and 2023, FEC records show. The trade association hopes that solar will “achieve 30% of U.S. electricity generation by 2030.”
Aligned PACs for SunPower and SunRun, two solar energy companies, have both given $2,500 to the congressman’s campaign in 2022 and 2023, respectively, according to FEC data.
Other affiliated PACs for green energy companies like NextEra Energy, Sempra Energy and Noble Energy have also donated thousands to Curtis’ campaign, to the tune of a combined $11,500 since 2018, according to FEC filings.
Curtis has been critical of the Biden administration’s costly green energy efforts, including the president’s signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act, according to Politico. The congressman hosts the “Conservative Climate Summit” on college campuses to engage with younger voters on the issue, and has travelled abroad to the last three U.N. climate summits.
“Being a marginal Republican, he will be a very popular candidate with Republican front groups, like [Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions] and Clear Path. He will also be popular with formerly Republican-leaning operations like the [American Petroleum Institute] and the Chamber,” Mike McKenna, GOP strategist and former Trump administration energy adviser, told the DCNF. “He may be one of the few people in Utah who would not be an upgrade from Sen. [Mitt] Romney.”
Curtis, former mayor of Provo, Utah, used to be a Democrat and served as his county party chair in the early 2000s, according to Deseret News.
Brent Orrin Hatch, son of the late Sen. Orrin Hatch who was succeeded by Romney, jumped into the race on the same day as Curtis. State House Speaker Brad Wilson launched a Senate bid in late September, and Riverton Mayor Trent Staggshas been running for Romney’s seat since May.
The Cook Political Report characterizes Romney’s seat as in the “Solid R” category. The GOP primary will be held on June 25.
A Guidant Polling and Strategy survey released in mid-December found Curtis with 40% support among the crowded Republican primary field, followed by Wilson at 11% and Staggs at 6%. The remaining 43% of likely primary voters were not yet sure of their choice.
“Voters of Utah will have a choice,” Pyle said. “The Republican primary voters [sic] will have a choice to pick somebody as their nominee who is either more like Sen. [Mike] Lee, who I would argue is a true conservative, or more like Sen. [Mitt] Romney, who has never really been much of a conservative especially on these issues.”
Curtis’ campaign did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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]]>Alex DeSmet, a meteorologist, told the Salt Lake Tribune that the unusual radar detection of the grasshoppers was associated with their distinctive non-uniform movement. Unlike weather events such as rain or snow, grasshopper swarms exhibit irregular patterns.
“This is not a common thing,” said Kris Watson, the state entomologist managing Utah’s insect and pest program at the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food (UDAF). “Grasshoppers themselves are common, but for them to show up on a radar detection — to my understanding, it’s not very common.”
This infestation coincided with a widespread drought that has affected several states in the region. The grasshopper invasion mainly affected farmers and ranchers, who rely on forage availability for their livestock. Experts believe the prolonged drought created favorable conditions for grasshopper eggs to hatch and develop into adult insects.
In response, the UDAF offers a grasshopper and Mormon cricket suppression program to assist affected producers. Farmers can apply for free pesticides through a government cost-sharing program.
However, the effectiveness of these measures has been questioned by farmers, especially considering the challenging conditions posed by the ongoing heatwave and drought.
Although grasshoppers are native to the western United States, their populations have traditionally been controlled by weather conditions, natural predators and diseases over millions of years.
However, the warmer and drier winters experienced since the spring of 2020 have led to a surge in grasshopper populations. The few rains that promoted the growth of grass – a primary food source for young grasshoppers – further contributed to the population explosion. (Related: Light pollution lured more than 45 million grasshoppers into Las Vegas in 2019, new study finds.)
Farmers devastated as grasshoppers devoured their crops
Farmers in the region have been left devastated as the grasshoppers devoured their crops, leaving behind barren fields.
Michael Dow, a rancher in Tooele, shared his dismay. “Every bit of alfalfa that’s in my fields is gone. It was bare dirt within a matter of hours,” he said. Reports of insect-related troubles have been emerging from the area over the past few weeks.
Swarms of grasshoppers are notorious for their ability to quickly destroy crops, consuming vast quantities of wheat, spinach, corn and other plants in a short period. While grasshoppers are known to bite, their bites typically cause mild discomfort and are more of an irritation than a serious concern.
Royce Larsen, a farmer from Box Elder County, Utah, expressed concerns about the impact of pests on an already struggling agricultural industry. “Between the hoppers and the drought, it’s bad,” he said, noting that the pesticide spray provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture might not save crops at this point in the season. Farmers still have to cover the application costs.
These excessive grasshopper populations have wreaked havoc not only in Utah but also in various parts of the United States. In addition to consuming forage crucial for livestock and wild animals like antelope, grasshoppers strip the leaves of fruit trees and gradually devour crops by infiltrating the dry areas surrounding farmlands. These insects can travel long distances and form swarms, perpetuating their destructive cycle in different locations.
Environ.news has more articles about swarms of insects such as grasshoppers and gypsy moth caterpillars invading different parts of the United States.
Watch this news clip of a grasshopper invasion that adds to the plight of Utah farmers.
This video is from the InfoWarSSideBand channel on Brighteon.com.
More related stories:
- Grasshoppers invade western US – the largest swarm in 35 years.
- The grasshoppers are swarming mad that you are prepared for the crash, by Brandon Smith.
- Western crops being ravaged by “truly biblical” swarm of cannibalistic insects.
Sources include:
]]>Dr. Michael Kirk Moore, the owner of the Plastic Surgery Institute of Utah in Midvale, has been charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), according to court documents (pdf).
Moore’s office manager Kari Burgoyne, receptionist Sandra Flores, neighbor Kristin Andersen, and the Plastic Surgery Institute are also charged in the case. The defendants are accused of running a vaccine scheme out of the physician’s business.
Moore and Andersen were allegedly members of a “private organization seeking to ‘liberate’ the medical profession from government and industry conflicts of interest,” the documents state.
In May 2021, Moore signed an agreement with the CDC to administer COVID-19 vaccines and vaccination cards. Court documents claim that Moore and Burgoyne then ordered “hundreds of doses of COVID-19 vaccines,” which they began receiving at the plastic surgery center in October 2021.
Working the Plan
After receiving the vaccine doses, the doctor and three others started notifying “fraudulent vax card seekers” that they could “receive fraudulently completed COVID-19 Vaccination Record Cards from the Plastic Surgery Institute without having to receive a COVID-19 vaccine,” the documents state.
Those seeking fraudulent vaccination cards were required to pay $50 cash or make a $50 donation to Moore and Andersen’s private organization.
Burgoyne allegedly managed the “day-to-day logistics of the scheme,” while Andersen handled the screening process. Once a person was successfully screened and had made their $50 payment, Andersen would send them forms to complete.
“Flores and other employees would then provide the Fraudulent Vax Card Seekers with the completed COVID-19 Vaccine Record Cards without administering any COVID-19 vaccine to them,” the document reads.
The group also gave fake vaccines to children when requested by the minors’ parents.
“Dr. Moore, Burgoyne, and Flores also arranged, at times, to administer or have others administer saline shots to minor children at the request of their parents so that the minor children would think they were actually receiving a COVID-19 vaccine,” according to the document.
The names of the fraudulent vaccination card seekers were uploaded to the Utah Statewide Immunization Information System.
Between Oct. 15, 2021, and Sept. 6, 2022, the Plastic Surgery Institute allegedly received about 2,200 doses of the vaccine and destroyed nearly 2,000 of them at a value of more than $28,000. The doses were destroyed “usually by drawing them from the bottle and then squirting them down the drain from a syringe.”
At least 1,937 fraudulent vaccination cards were allegedly sold at $50 each for a total of $96,850. The vaccination cards and the vaccine doses amounted to a combined value of nearly $125,000.
Undercover Agents
The scheme fell apart when an undercover agent managed to complete the “referral only” process and acquire a fake vaccination card. A second agent went through the process and then asked Flores if his children could also receive a similar vaccine record card.
Flores “wrote on a Post-it note that ‘with 18 & younger, we do a saline shot,’ indicating that minors could receive saline shots and obtain the cards without receiving the vaccine,” the court papers say.
The government is seeking forfeiture of all remaining COVID-19 vaccine doses in Moore’s possession, all remaining vaccination cards, and a judgment of $124,878.
Moore, Burgoyne, Flores, and Andersen are expected to make their initial court appearances on Jan. 26.
Article cross-posted from our premium news partners at The Epoch Times.
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