Walmart fails to reach emission reduction targets while its own foundation pushes climate policies
The Walton Family Fund, started by the family of Walmart's founders, has an extensive funding network spreading across multiple media outlets and organizations advocating for climate policies.
Walmart announced recently that it wouldn’t be meeting its emission-reductions targets. Previously, the company had vowed that by 2024, it would reduce operational greenhouse gas emissions by 35% compared to 2015 levels, and by 2030, it was going to get those down by 65%.
The mega retail chain is not alone in its retreat from aggressive pursuits of net-zero emissions as those goals run head-on into the limits of current technology to replace fossil fuels affordably and reliability.
Unlike other companies revising their targets, however, the Walton Family Fund, one of the foundations initiated with Walmart wealth, has been pouring millions of dollars into media outlets and professional journalism groups to promote a climate agenda, as well as to activist groups lobbying for climate policies.
While the donations to the outlets are promoted as philanthropic support for journalism, critics say the organization is effectively funding a public relations campaign for its own political agenda.
“They're using their fortune to buy favorable media and to fund climate activist groups, and they do it to advance their mission to influence policymakers and the public,” Aaron Johnson, vice president of public and legislative affairs with the Western Energy Alliance, an oil and gas industry group, told Just the News.
Philanthropy partners
The internet has been reshaping the news business model for a couple decades now. With a flood of free content, the subscription and ad model was failing to sustain news operations. A Pew Research report in 2020 found that newspaper circulation fell in 2018 to its lowest level since 1940, the first year that data is available. Advertising revenue fell from $37.8 billion in 2008 to $14.3 billion in 2018, a 62% decline.
Many outlets are relying on donations from foundations to support their work. The Associated Press, for example, received $8 million dollars in 2022 to support its climate and energy reporting. While billed as neutral “philanthropy funded” news, the organizations donating the money include Quadrivium, which states on its website that its "heartened by the passage of a set of landmark climate legislation in 2021 and 2022” to fight climate change, and the Rockefeller Foundation, which advocates for the end of the fossil fuel industry.
The Walton Family Foundation (WFF), which was founded in 1987 by the founders of the Walmart empire, Sam and Helen Walton, was among the "philanthropy partners” supporting the Associated Press’s climate and energy coverage. The foundation had $6.9 billion in assets in 2022. Far from being a neutral party, the WFF promotes a perspective on climate issues.
Last week, the WFF in partnership with pollster Gallup, published a report on a survey of young people. The survey found that of 12 climate-related issues, majorities of Gen Zers express “some” or “a great deal” of worry about nine, including five related to water.
“As we look to the future, there's a growing sense of urgency. Young people fear inheriting a world where clean water is scarce and climate change continues to worsen. We need to work on solutions to ensure clean, safe water remains accessible for generations to come,” Moira Mcdonald, environment program director at the WFF, said in a statement.
However, access to clean drinking water has never been better than it is today. Deaths from unsafe drinking water have declined by more than half in the past 30 years, and deaths are highest in underdeveloped countries, which have low greenhouse gas emissions. Rather than be concerned that Gen Zers have exaggerated concerns about water quality, the WFF press release on the survey reinforces their fears.
Media campaign
Since 2014, the WFF has given nearly $79 million to media outlets and other organizations. Besides the Associated Press, the foundation has granted money to the publishing companies of The Atlantic, National Public Radio and The New York Times.
Some of the WFF’s funding for media outlets comes indirectly to the publications. The Colorado Sun announced it received $1.4 million from the American Journalism Project, which is funded partly by the WFF. Last year, the WFF gave the American Journalism Project $100,000, according to the foundation’s website. The Sun produces many articles targeting the Suncor oil refinery in north Denver.
The WFF has also granted money to journalism professional groups including the Society for Environmental Journalists, which is funded by multiple anti-fossil fuel groups and has become increasingly hostile toward the oil and gas industry.
The WFF also funds journalism education. It has given $5.2 million to the University of Colorado for research and media. The WFF funds the Water Desk media program at the university, which produces anti-oil-and-gas stories and promotes WFF’s advocacy mission related to Colorado River Basin policies.
The WFF has also funded conservation groups, which advocate for a transition away from fossil fuels, especially those in Colorado. For example, the WFF provided Conservation Colorado $1.8 million, the Western Resource Advocates $7.8 million and the League of Conservation Voters $490,000.
According to Colorado lobby disclosures, the two groups lobbied last spring in the Colorado legislature in support of several anti-oil-and-gas bills, including H.B. 1330, which would have required evaluating emissions in state permitting.
Johnson, with the Western Energy Alliance, said the regulations drive up the costs of energy, which drives up costs for consumers.
“The goal of this funding is to drive public policies to their favor," Johnson said. "And that increases regulations on the farmer. It increases regulations on the small businesses within the oil and gas industry and across other industries, which for consumers, ultimately means they're paying more at the checkout and they're paying more at the pump."
Pervasive influence
In its announcement on the $8 million in donations to support its climate and energy reporting, the Associated Press insisted that the money it receives from anti-fossil fuel groups wouldn’t compromise the outlet’s editorial independence. Though it’s hard to find a single article in the wire service’s well-funded climate coverage disputing the “climate crisis” narrative.
Civil Eats, an investigative news publication focused on the American food system, published a lengthy dive last year into the WFF’s funding of multiple different media outlets across the country. The funding becomes important to these various outlets, which then have to maintain their independence from their funders. When it comes to the Waltons, Civil Eats reports, the funding is so pervasive that it’s often difficult for some outlets to not encounter it, whether directly or indirectly.
“In the case of Walmart, the Walton Family Foundation, and its family members’ many individual foundations, the funding can saturate an entire region or subject, meaning that reporters doing their jobs simply can’t avoid the Walton family’s influence,” Civil Eats reporter Bill Lascher wrote.
The article states that Civil Eats doesn’t receive money directly from the WFF, but it has received indirect support from organizations that partner with the foundation.
The Walton Family Fund did not respond to requests for comment on this article.
While the WFF funds climate activist groups and media outlets biased against fossil fuels, Walmart’s own emission reduction efforts is failing at the pace the company had planned. It still plans to electrify its trucking fleet by 2040, despite the high costs to consumers, and power its operations with 100% renewable energy by 2035. Should the company fail in these targets, it can just push back the target dates.
When public policies fail, however, taxpayer dollars can be wasted and it’s much harder to reverse course. It’s usually the media that informs the public when tax dollars are being wasted on ineffective policies. When the funding sources pushing those policies are also funding the media outlets covering those policies, there’s no independent watcher to speak up.
The Facts Inside Our Reporter's Notebook
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- announced recently
- company is not alone
- head-on into the limits of current technology
- Western Energy Alliance
- Pew Research report in 2020
- lowest level since 1940
- $8 million dollars
- states on its website
- Rockefeller Foundation
- which was founded in 1987
- foundation had $6.9 billion in assets
- survey found
- said in a statement
- declined by more than half
- undeveloped countries
- $79 million dollars
- announced it received $1.4 million
- partly by the WFF
- foundationâs website
- articles targeting
- hostile toward the oil and gas industry
- $5.2 million
- Water Desk
- funded conservation groups
- $1.8 million
- $7.8 million
- $490,000
- hard to find a single article
- published a lengthy dive
- electrify its trucking fleet by 2040
- despite the high costs to consumers
- 100% renewable energy by 2035