2016/06/29 Council Agenda Packet

4 IIIt ' AR2 staffers have so far identified three key targets—billionaire investor and climate action advocate , McKibben and environmental activists generally. Brian Rogers,AR2 , has said his group will"hold Steyer and the Environmentalist Left accountable for their epic hypocrisy and extreme positions which threaten America's future prosperity." One early contribution of ARsquared.org was a slick video accusing Tom Steyer of hypocrisy over previous fossil fuel investments. Steyer told the accusations were"complete and utter nonsense" because, Mayer wrote, his investments were held in trusts where profits were transferred to a charity. "They have to know they're lying. It's completely dishonest, unethical, and pitiful. And it's creepy," Steyer said, adding while the attacks would not deter him, he was concerned they could put others off climate activism. McKibben told DeSmog:"I think it's pretty clear that they want to talk about anything other than climate change." AR2 has launched a new website, ,to push its partisan talking points into the public space. The site is accompanied by a channel, account, feed and page. AR2 has its origins in the spring 2013 launch of America Rising PAC—the political action committee created by Republicans to carry out so-called"opposition research"into Democrat opponents. The PAC's prime target is Hillary Clinton. America Rising PAC employs trackers to follow candidates' every move in the hope of capturing a potentially embarrassing slip-up or hypocritical statement while researchers dig into their histories for anything that might put them in a bad light. In a submission last week, it had filed"almost 2000"FOIA requests as part of its work. America Rising's research and tracking material is pushed to the public domain through branded channels, media briefings or paid advertising.