Democrats
Maryland Governor Wes Moore's 'Climate Study' Is Bankrolled by Left-Wing Rockefeller Fund Amid Push To Force Oil Companies To Pay Billions in Damages
The deep-pocketed foundation says the study will 'lay the groundwork' for a bill that puts oil companies on the hook for 'climate adaptation costs'
Wes Moore (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Thomas Catenacci
April 22, 2026
The left-wing environmental nonprofit Rockefeller Family Fund (RFF) is bankrolling a study commissioned by Maryland governor Wes Moore (D.) to "assess the undue burden Marylanders are paying for extreme weather events," records show. The group says the study is the first step in passing a law that would require oil companies to pay the state billions of dollars in climate damages.
When Moore announced he would move forward with the study in December, he touted $30,000 in "philanthropic funding" but did not disclose where that funding came from. Maryland's 2027 state budget shows that RFF provided the $30,000 grant, which, in addition to $470,000 in state funds, will be used to "illustrate the extent of the damage done by increasingly intense weather events along with other environmental shifts related to climate change."
Moore in May 2025 initially vetoed the bill that created the study before reversing course seven months later. RFF cheered the move, saying in a press release that the study would "lay the groundwork for a Maryland climate superfund bill, which would require fossil fuel companies to pay for a portion of the state's climate adaptation costs identified through the study." It also credited one of its grantees, the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, for getting the study over the "finish line" but did not disclose that it was funding the study.
https://freebeacon.com/democrats/maryland-governor-wes-moores-climate-study-is-bankrolled-by-left-wing-rockefeller-fund-amid-push-to-force-oil-companies-to-pay-billions-in-damages/