Fearless Fund is an environmentalist research group focusing on sustainable resource generation from the ocean. The organization is comprised of scientists, bioengineers, and entrepreneurs¹ seeking ways to harvest seaweed as a biofuel, in a project funded by the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency. ²

Fearless Fund is part of a larger group of left-of-center organizations that supports the Green New Deal (GND), demanding that the U.S. replace its use of conventional energy sources with those preferred by environmentalists. ³

Activity

In 2019, the Fearless Fund was one of the 626 left-of-center groups that signed a letter urging Congress to support legislation supporting the Green New Deal (GND), a legislative program critics have called a “radical, top-down, socialist makeover of the entire U.S. economy.” ⁴ The letter demands policy that will end the use of conventional energy and convert the U.S. to 100% “renewable” energy, including the biofuels that Fearless Fund explores. ⁵

Funding

In 2018, the Fearless Fund was granted $500,000 by the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency to increase cultivation of seaweed as an alternative energy source. ⁶

Board of Directors

Alyson Myers is president of the Fearless Fund and sits on the advisory board of About Them. ⁷

Boyce Thorne-Miller is a science and policy coordinator for the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance (NAMA) ⁸ and a senior fellow with the Ocean Foundation. ⁹

Fritzi Cohen, a lawyer and longtime liberal activist, is the founder of the Fearless Fund and serves as the treasurer of the board. Her late husband, Edward Cohen, was a reporter and editor for the Washington Post. Cohen is the owner of the Tabard Inn and the Moby Dick Hotel and Oyster Farm, and in 2008 sued the state of Washington for spraying chemical herbicides, which she claimed drifted into her oyster growing area. ¹⁰ In 2010, Cohen threated to sell her property to the neo-Nazi extremist group Aryan Nation if the Washington Department of Agriculture continued to spray near her oyster beds. ¹¹

Other members of the board include attorney Cary Devorsetz, who serves as the board’s secretary, artist Virginia Daley, Moby Dick Hotel manager Keith Stavrum, and art gallery director Anne Zill. ¹²

1. “Who We Are.” Fearless Fund, 2017. Accessed July 22, 2020. https://jr9553.wixsite.com/fearless/who-we-are.
2. “Department Of Energy Announces 18 New Projects To Accelerate Production Of Macroalgae For Energy And Other Uses.” Fearless Fund, February 17, 2018. Accessed July 22, 2020. https://www.fearlessfund.org/news/2018/2/17/department-of-energy-announces-18-new-projects-to-accelerate-production-of-macroalgae-for-energy-and-other-uses.
3. “Legislation to Address the Urgent Threat of Climate Change.” The Center for Biological Diversity, January 10, 2019. Accessed July 22, 2020. https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/climate_law_institute/legislating_for_a_new_climate/pdfs/Letter-to-Congress-%20Legislation-to-Address-the-Urgent-Threat-of-Climate-Change.pdf.
4. McConnell, Mitch. Twitter Post. March 25, 2019, 5:18 P.M. Accessed March 29, 2019. https://twitter.com/senatemajldr/status/1110289975386492929
5. “Legislation to Address the Urgent Threat of Climate Change.” The Center for Biological Diversity, January 10, 2019. Accessed July 22, 2020. https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/climate_law_institute/legislating_for_a_new_climate/pdfs/Letter-to-Congress-%20Legislation-to-Address-the-Urgent-Threat-of-Climate-Change.pdf.
6. “Department Of Energy Announces 18 New Projects To Accelerate Production Of Macroalgae For Energy And Other Uses.” Fearless Fund, February 17, 2018. Accessed July 22, 2020. https://www.fearlessfund.org/news/2018/2/17/department-of-energy-announces-18-new-projects-to-accelerate-production-of-macroalgae-for-energy-and-other-uses.
7. “About Us.” About Them, 2020. Accessed July 22, 2020. https://aboutthem.com/about-us/.
8. “Team.” Fearless Fund, 2017. Accessed July 22, 2020. https://jr9553.wixsite.com/fearless/team.
9. “Boyce Thorne Miller.” The Ocean Foundation, 2020. Accessed July 22, 2020. https://oceanfdn.org/staff/boyce-thorne-miller/.
10. Carman, Tim. “At the Tabard Inn, a family feud over hotel’s future causes turmoil.” The Washington Post, June 30, 2013. Accessed July 22, 2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/at-the-tabard-inn-a-family-feud-over-hotels-future-causes-turmoil/2013/06/30/2e2bf112-d20f-11e2-a73e-826d299ff459_story.html.
11. Cockle, Richard. “Businesses use specter of selling out to hate group in community disputes.” The Oregonian, April 24, 2010. Accessed July 22, 2020. https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2010/04/businesses_use_specter_of_sell.html.
12. “Team.” Fearless Fund, 2017. Accessed July 22, 2020. https://jr9553.wixsite.com/fearless/team.