Publish What You Pay United States (PWYP-US) is the United States-based coalition of Publish What You Pay (PWYP), a network of left-of-center and environmentalist organizations that has opposed the expansion of the conventional energy industry and oppossed the use of zero carbon nuclear energy. ^{1 2}

PWYP-US consists of more than 40 left-of-center environmentalist, tax activist, anti-corruption, labor union, and left-leaning religious organizations. PWYP-US claims the world is in a climate crisis and that the expansion of the American fossil fuel industry “puts the entire world at risk.” ³ PWYP-US supports the critical race theory-influenced concepts of intergenerational equity, ⁴ gender equity, gender justice, climate justice, tax justice, ⁵ and a “globally just transition” away from conventional fuels to weather-dependent and other nonconventional forms of energy. ⁶

PWYP-US is a member of the left-leaning Declaration for American Democracy coalition. ⁷

History and Leadership

Publish What You Pay United States (PWYP-US) is the United States-based coalition of the Welsh-, English-, and Belgium-registered charity Publish What You Pay (PWYP). ⁸ PWYP was founded in 2002  ⁹ and is a global network of 700 member organizations and 50 national coalitions. ¹⁰

Carly Oboth is the director of PWYP-US. Prior to joining PWYP-US, Oboth worked at Global Witness and advocated for the Dodd-Frank banking regulation law in that position. ¹¹

PWYP-US is governed by a steering committee consisting of representatives from no more than five of PWYP’s coalition members. Steering committee members represent Global Witness, Oxfam America, ONE Campaign, Declaration for American Democracy, and Fund For Constitutional Government. ¹²

Policy Goals

Publish What You Pay (PWYP) advocates comprehensive financial disclosures of the conventional energy industry and other related industries. The group opposes what it calls political capture by these industries and supports the critical race theory-influenced concept of a “just transition” away from conventional fuels to nonconventional sources of energy. ¹³

Climate and Energy

Publish What You Pay United States (PWYP-US) is the United States-based branch of the London-based Publish What You Pay (PWYP) network of environmentalist organizations that oppose the expansion of the fossil fuel industry. ¹⁴ PWYP-US consists of more than 40 environmentalist, tax activist, anti-corruption, labor union, and left-leaning religious organizations. ¹⁵

PWYP-US contends that the world is in a climate crisis and claims that expansion of the American fuels industry “puts the entire world at risk.” ¹⁶ The organization supports the critical race theory-influenced concepts of intergenerational equity ¹⁷ and proposes a “globally just transition” away from fossil fuels to weather-dependent and other nonconventional forms of energy. ¹⁸

PWYP-US believes the conventional fuel industry has a “corrupting influence” on elected and regulatory officials and attempts to build public and political opposition to expanded oil drilling both in the United States and overseas. ¹⁹ The group also supports a critical race theory-influenced equitable and managed decline away from fossil fuels. ²⁰

In 2010, PWYP-US supported the passage of Section 1504 (Cardin-Lugar provision) of the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010, which requires reporting of payments made to governments for the extraction of oil, natural gas, and minerals by companies that otherwise must file disclosures with the Securities and Exchange Commission. ^{21 22 23}

Opposition to Nuclear Energy

In May of 2021, PWYP-US was one of 715 groups and businesses listed as a co-signer on a letter to the leadership of the U.S. House and Senate that referred to nuclear energy as a “dirty” form of energy production and a “significant” source of pollution. The letter asked federal lawmakers to reduce carbon emissions by creating a “renewable electricity standard” that promoted production of weather dependent power sources such as wind turbines and solar panels, but did not promote low carbon natural gas and zero carbon nuclear energy. ²⁴

Nuclear power plants produce no carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gas emissions, and as of 2021 accounted for 19 percent of American electricity production—the largest source of zero carbon electricity in the United States. ²⁵ An October 2018 proposal from The Nature Conservancy noted that zero-carbon nuclear plants produced 7.8 percent of total world energy output and recommended reducing carbon emissions by increasing nuclear capacity to 33 percent of total world energy output. ²⁶

Critical Race Theory

In 2019, PWYP’s international headquarters released Vision 2025, which outlined PWYP’s strategic goals for 2020 to 2025. The organization’s priorities included support for the critical race theory-influenced concepts of gender equity, gender justice, climate justice, and tax justice. ²⁷

Allies and Members

Publish What You Pay is a member of the left-leaning Declaration for American Democracy coalition. ²⁸

Members of PWYP-US include left-of-center and environmentalist groups such as ActionAid USA, American Jewish World Service, Amnesty International USA, Bank Information Center, CARE, Catholic Relief Services, CorpWatch, Crude Accountability, EarthRights International, Earthworks, EG Justice, Environmental Defense Fund, Friends of the Earth, Gender Action, Global Rights, Global Witness, Government Accountability Project, Human Rights Watch, International Budget Project, International Labor Rights Forum, Micah Challenge USA, National Whistleblower Center, Natural Resources Governance Institute, ONE Campaign, Open Society Policy Center, Oxfam America, Pacific Environment, Presbyterian Church USA, Project on Government Oversight, Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights, Sierra Club, Sustainable Energy and Economy Network, The Borgen Project, United End to Genocide, United Methodist General Board of Church and Society, and the United Steelworkers. ^{29 30}

Funding

Publish What You Pay United States (PWYP-US) is the U.S. branch of the London-based Publish What You Pay (PWYP). ³¹

In 2019, PWYP-US received a portion of $825,233 of expenses from the left-of-center Fund for Constitutional Government. ³² In 2012, the left-of-center William and Flora Hewlett Foundation gave $330,000 to Oxfam America to support its role in the Publish What You Pay US coalition to promote implementation of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act that focuses on global standards for oil, gas, and mining company payment disclosure. ³³

1. “Twitter Bio.” Publish What You Pay Twitter Page. Accessed February 27, 2023. https://twitter.com/PWYPtweets?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor.
2. Letter from Center for Biological Diversity et. al. to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Joe Manchin, and Rep. Frank Pallone. “RE: CONGRESS SHOULD ENACT A FEDERAL RENEWABLE ELECTRICITY STANDARD AND REJECT GAS AND FALSE SOLUTIONS.” May 12, 2021. Accessed July 25, 2023. https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/energy-justice/pdfs/2021-5-12_600-Group-Letter-for-RES.pdf?_gl=1*1c9h3t8*_gcl_au*MTc3NjM3MTM1Mi4xNjg5OTU1MzAz
3. “About Us.” Publish What You Pay US. Accessed February 28, 2023. https://www.pwypusa.org/about/.
4. “Tweet.” PWYP US Twitter. Posted August 5, 2019. Accessed February 28, 2023. https://twitter.com/PWYPUSA/status/1158454276794068993.
5. “Vision 2025.” Publish What You Pay. January 2019. Accessed February 28, 2023. https://www.pwyp.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Vision-2025-a-people-centred-agenda-for-the-extractive-sector.pdf.
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9. “Publish What You Pay-US Strategic Plan October 2020 – December 2022.” Publish What You Pay United States. May 2021. Accessed February 28, 2023. http://www.pwypusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Strategy-FULL-version_FIN-Dec-2020.pdf.
10. “About Us.” Publish What You Pay US. Accessed February 28, 2023. https://www.pwypusa.org/about/.
11.  “Our Team.” Publish What You Pay US. Accessed February 28, 2023. https://www.pwypusa.org/team/.
12. “Our Steering Committee.” Publish What You Pay US. Accessed February 28, 2023. https://www.pwypusa.org/team/.
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15. “About Us.” Publish What You Pay US. Accessed February 28, 2023. https://www.pwypusa.org/about/.
16. “About Us.” Publish What You Pay US. Accessed February 28, 2023. https://www.pwypusa.org/about/.
17. “Tweet.” PWYP US Twitter. Posted August 5, 2019. Accessed February 28, 2023. https://twitter.com/PWYPUSA/status/1158454276794068993.
18. “About Us.” Publish What You Pay United States. Accessed February 28, 2023. https://www.pwypusa.org/about/.
19. “End the Corrupting Influence of the Fossil Fuel Industry.” Publish What You Pay United States. Accessed February 28, 2023. https://www.pwypusa.org/end-corruption/.
20. “About Us.” Publish What You Pay United States. Accessed February 28, 2023. https://www.pwypusa.org/about/.
21. “United States Coalition.” Publish What You Pay. Accessed February 28, 2023. https://www.pwyp.org/pwyp_members/united-states/.
22. “Cardin, Lugar, Leahy Welcome SEC Approval of Transparency Rules.” Office of U.S. Senator Ben Cardin Press Release. August 22, 2012. Accessed March 1, 2023. https://www.cardin.senate.gov/press-releases/cardin-lugar-leahy-welcome-sec-approval-of-transparency-rules/.
23. “Myth Busting: The Truth About the Cardin-Lugar Anti-Corruption Provision.” Publish What You Pay United States. Accessed March 1, 2023. http://www.pwypusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/CRA-Mythbusters-Cardin-Lugar-Provision-2017-1.pdf.
24. Letter from Center for Biological Diversity et. al. to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Joe Manchin, and Rep. Frank Pallone. “RE: CONGRESS SHOULD ENACT A FEDERAL RENEWABLE ELECTRICITY STANDARD AND REJECT GAS AND FALSE SOLUTIONS.” May 12, 2021. Accessed July 25, 2023. https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/energy-justice/pdfs/2021-5-12_600-Group-Letter-for-RES.pdf?_gl=1*1c9h3t8*_gcl_au*MTc3NjM3MTM1Mi4xNjg5OTU1MzAz
25. “Nuclear explained.” U.S. Energy Information Administration. Accessed July 25, 2023. https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/nuclear/us-nuclear-industry.php
26. “The Science of Sustainability.” The Nature Conservancy. October 13, 2018. Accessed July 25, 2023. https://www.nature.org/en-us/what-we-do/our-insights/perspectives/the-science-of-sustainability/
27. “Vision 2025.” Publish What You Pay. January 2019. Accessed February 28, 2023. https://www.pwyp.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Vision-2025-a-people-centred-agenda-for-the-extractive-sector.pdf.
28. “Our 250 Members.” Declaration for American Democracy. Accessed February 23, 2023. https://dfadcoalition.org/.
29. “Our Members.” Publish What You Pay United States. Accessed February 28, 2023. https://www.pwypusa.org/our-members/.
30. “United States Coalition.” Publish What You Pay. Accessed February 28, 2023. https://www.pwyp.org/pwyp_members/united-states/.
31. “Twitter Bio.” Publish What You Pay Twitter Page. Accessed February 27, 2023. https://twitter.com/PWYPtweets?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor.
32. “Fund for Constitutional Government.” Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax. (Form 990). 2019. Part I. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/237391766/202033149349302893/full.
33. “Oxfam America.” William and Flora Hewlett Foundation April 21, 2012. Accessed February 28, 2023. https://hewlett.org/grants/oxfam-america-for-a-project-to-promote-implementation-of-the-u-s-oil-and-mining-payment-disclosure-requirement/.