Also see Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions (Nonprofit)

Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions Forum (CRES) is a right-leaning environmental nonprofit founded in 2015 as the fundraising and research arm of Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions (CRES), a 501(c)(4) advocacy group formed in 2013 to advocate that Republicans increase government energy regulations and consumption taxes to combat climate change. The groups are also affiliated with a PAC, also named Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions (PAC).

Though CRES claims to support “conservative energy solutions,” the advocacy arm received $1 million in total startup funding from center-left groups, including the Advocacy Fund and the Trust for Energy Innovation. ¹ CRES Forum, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, has received funding from donor-advised fund providers and the left-of-center William & Flora Hewlett Foundation. ²

CRES’s activities include lobbying, campaign spending, direct mail advertising, and public affairs campaigns to back legislation and Republican candidates aligning with the group’s environmental policy agenda. James Dozier is the founder, executive director, and board president of CRES. Dozier is also a principal at the political consulting firm Civitas Public Affairs Group. In 2016, CRES paid Civitas $240,000 in “project management” services, of which Dozier himself personally received $90,000. ³

On July 17, 2017, former U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) was named the organization’s senior adviser. ⁴ Ayotte, who has called the science on climate change “settled,”⁵ is a longstanding advocate for action to regulate the energy industry, including as an early Republican supporter of President Barack Obama’s controversial Clean Power Plan. ⁶

Activities

CRES and CRES Forum support a range of Republican legislative proposals on energy and the climate, including establishing national carbon reporting. ⁷⁸ The organization reported spending $409,000 on lobbying in 2016, using lobbyists from McDonald Hopkins and Crossroads Strategies. ⁹

CRES was a supporter of U.S. participation in the Paris Climate Agreement, and lobbied against President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the agreement. The group ran last-minute advertisements on cable news programs President Trump is believed to watch such as MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” and met with White House aide George David Banks. ¹⁰

The organization also has a record of spending heavily in political campaigns. In 2016, CRES endorsed 29 moderate Republican candidates for Congress, including Reps. Carlos Curbelo and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, and Reps. Charlie Dent, Brian Fitzpatrick, Pat Meehan and Ryan Costello of Pennsylvania. ¹¹  It spent $2 million in support of candidates with direct mail, radio, digital and television advertising. Of the 29 endorsed, 26 won their races. ¹²

Controversy

The group also was challenged over its claims that it “has no connections, formally or informally, with any specific energy industry,” given that the board of the Trust for Energy Innovation includes Reuben Munger, owner of a venture capital fund directly invested in a number of alternative energy companies with direct interests in the type of policies backed by CRES. ¹³

Leadership

James Dozier

CRES founder James Dozier began his political career as a campaign staffer for former moderate Republican U.S. Representative Connie Morella (R-MD),¹⁴ and later served as an organizer for the right-leaning LGBT group Log Cabin Republicans. ¹⁵ Dozier has said that the need for Republicans to devise clean energy solutions is “a political reality,” and that “for a growing number of voters this issue isn’t a debate. It’s how we address it. That’s where the conversation is.” ¹⁶

The group received early criticism by conservatives for having an allegedly left-leaning political agenda. ¹⁷ In July of 2013, The Huffington Post reported that CRES received $500,000 each from the left-leaning Advocacy Fund and the Trust for Energy Innovation, both of which are backers of liberal advocacy groups. ¹⁸

Jennifer LaTourette

In 2013, CRES also hired the lobbying services of Jennifer LaTourette, wife of former Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-Ohio), head of the centrist Republican Main Street Partnership. ¹⁹ In defense of CRES’s conservative roots, Dozier issued a statement claiming that his group “has received funding from 800 donors and backing from more than 5,000 conservative activists.” ²⁰

Kelly Ayotte

In 2017, former U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte was named as the organization’s senior advisor. Ayotte previously received more than $500,000 from CRES during her failed 2016 re-election campaign. ²¹

Ayotte has a long history of supporting environmentalist policies and climate regulations. In 2005, as Attorney General for the State of New Hampshire, Ayotte sued federal regulators over a change that made clean air emissions standards for power plants less strict and eliminated clean air reporting and monitoring requirements, forcing a change to the rule. ²² In 2015, she became the first Senate Republican to endorse then-President Barack Obama’s controversial Clean Power Plan, which increased regulations and taxes on carbon emissions. She also became one of five Republican senators to vote to pass a non-binding amendment stating that “climate change is real and human activity significantly contributes to climate change.” ²³

Heather Reams

The current executive director of CRES is Heather Reams, who has a background in public affairs and education policy. ²⁴

Funding

Donors to CRES Forum

In 2015, CRES Forum received a $50,000 grant from the Foundation for the Carolinas, a donor-advised fund provider.

In 2017, CRES Forum received grants totaling $1.4 million from multiple donor-advised fund providers and the center-left William and Flora Hewlett Foundation:

• Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund: $925,000
• Schwab Charitable Gift Fund: $269,350
• William & Flora Hewlett Foundation: $200,000

Grants from CRES Forum

In 2017, CRES Forum paid grants totaling $670,000 to other nonprofits: ²⁵

• ACCF Center for Policy Research: $100,000
• American Conservation Coalition: $75,000
• Clean Energy Business Network: $50,000
• Conservatives for Clean Energy: $75,000
• George Mason University (GMU) Foundation: $300,000
• National Taxpayers Union Foundation: $50,000
• Business Council for Sustainable Energy: $10,000

Financial Documents

CRES Forum is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit formed in July 2015. ²⁶

CRES Forum’s IRS Form 990 filings for 2017 and 2016 are available here:

• 2017 Form 990
• 2016 Form 990

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