Bay Area Billionaire Environmentalist Battling 2016 GOP Hopefuls By Outing Them On Climate Change
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- A Bay Area billionaire environmentalist hopes to put GOP White House hopefuls on the climate-change "hot seat," and give the Koch Brothers a run for their money.
Tom Steyer, a retired hedge fund owner worth $1.6 billion, has vowed to spend millions to help Democrats in battleground states. In 2014, he poured $70 million of his own money into midterm elections, and says he "will spend what it takes" in 2016.
Billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch have committed $900 million to advance their anti-climate change, free-market agenda. But Steyer feels he can prevail. His NextGen Climate Change super PAC will target Iowa, New Hampshire, Colorado, Florida, and Michigan targeting young adults and college students on environmental issues.
Steyer's top political strategist, Chris Lehane told USA Today, "the Kochs and their allies are creating the new Koch Republican Party, the party of Big Oil. We need to act now. Whoever is the next president really, in our view, represents the last, best shot to avoid a climate disaster for our children."
