The League of Conservation Voters contributed $50.2 million to liberal groups and Democrats during the 2024 federal election cycle, more than energy behemoth Koch Industries spent on political activities, according to a new report from the Capital Research Center titled "Enemies of Energy." The report, published in 2026, characterizes the LCV as "the political enforcement arm of the anti-energy movement" and documents the organization's rapid financial growth and aggressive opposition to both fossil fuels and nuclear power.
The numbers paint a picture of an organization that's grown explosively in recent years. The LCV reported revenue of $159.3 million in 2024, its most successful financial year ever—more than the previous two years combined, which totaled just $136.4 million. That's a dramatic leap from 2011, when annual revenue stood at only $11.6 million. The organization announced plans to spend $120 million influencing 2024 election outcomes, more than triple Greenpeace's total 2024 revenue. The LCV dwarfed other environmental groups in political spending: the Environmental Defense Fund contributed $17.3 million, the Natural Resources Defense Council gave $7.1 million, and Tom Steyer's NextGen network spent $5.2 million. The LCV Victory Fund claimed responsibility for electing 147 federal candidates and 819 state and local candidates, while making 2.2 million phone calls, shipping 6 million mail pieces, and knocking on 3.6 million doors. The organization operates through dozens of political committees, nonprofits, and 30 state-level affiliates—the League of Conservation Voters Education Fund granted more than $2.8 million to just the North Carolina affiliate in 2024.
"Climate change is the greatest challenge of our generation," the LCV website states, according to the report. The organization's agenda extends to "job placements for displaced workers from the fossil fuel industry" as a policy objective. Through its "Clean Energy for All" program, the LCV promotes state-level ballot initiatives imposing renewable energy mandates, which the group claims have led to 40 percent of Americans living under these restrictions. The report documents how LCV's legislative director co-signed a November 2020 letter to the Senate opposing nuclear power legislation, claiming nuclear energy "amplifies and expands the dangers of climate change." State affiliates echoed this stance—North Carolina's LCV called a nuclear-powered future a "poisonous pipe dream" in April 2023, while Michigan's chapter criticized Governor Gretchen Whitmer for supporting the Palisades nuclear plant reopening in July 2024.
The report argues this opposition to nuclear power undermines emissions-free energy goals, noting that nuclear remains America's largest source of zero-emissions electricity even after decades of subsidies for wind and solar. The Palisades nuclear facility alone produced more than 7 million megawatt hours of electricity in 2021, its final full year—nearly as much as every wind turbine and solar panel in Michigan combined, which generated 8.3 million MWh that year. The Capital Research Center frames the LCV's comprehensive opposition to hydrocarbons and nuclear power as working against reliable energy sources while promoting weather-dependent alternatives that require ongoing taxpayer support.
The report's bottom line is clear: the League of Conservation Voters has become America's largest anti-energy political movement, wielding unprecedented financial resources to shape elections and energy policy at every level of government. With revenue climbing year after year and a network spanning all 50 states, the LCV's influence on energy policy debates—and its ability to block nuclear and fossil fuel projects—will likely continue growing.