Reading · The Liberty Sentinel

Rep Andy Ogles issues open letter urging Muslim community to condemn ...

U.S. Congressman Andy Ogles of Tennessee’s 5th District, one of the most consistent conservative voices in the House Freedom Caucus, is under coordinated assault — not from his constituents, but from a swarm of out-of-state green energy grifters determined to purchase a more compliant lawmaker in Congress.

The vehicle is the “Invest in Tomorrow Coalition PAC,” a super PAC bankrolled by so-called clean-energy investors furious that their taxpayer-funded gravy train is being exposed and interrupted.

The group has already poured nearly $700,000 into the August 6 Republican primary to elevate former state Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Hatcher while carpet-bombing Ogles with negative ads.

Punchbowl News reports the PAC expects to spend around $1 million before the primary, with ads accusing Ogles of resume inflation and other personal attacks. Naturally, the ads carefully avoid any honest discussion of energy policy.

Tom Matzzie, the PAC’s chair and CEO of CleanChoice Energy, made the real motive plain: The spending is designed “to communicate a message to the other members of Congress that if you take these extreme positions, the industry is watching.”

“If you’re an extremist on American energy, you’re on our target list,” Matzzie declared.

Who is writing these checks? Leading the list is San Francisco billionaire Chris Larsen, co-founder of the cryptocurrency firm Ripple. Larsen, who previously flooded Kamala Harris’s 2024 campaign with more than $11 million and is now vowing to bankroll Governor Gavin Newsom, has dumped millions into Invest in Tomorrow this cycle. Indeed, records show contributions totaling well over $5 million.

Another notable donor is Jigar Shah, the former director of the Biden Energy Department’s Loan Programs Office. Shah, who oversaw the distribution of roughly $400 billion in green-energy loan authority, personally gave $50,000.

These are not disinterested philanthropists concerned about the weather. They are defending a lucrative racket. The House Freedom Caucus, with Ogles (Freedom Index score: 95) among its ranks, fought hard inside the One Big Beautiful Bill to sunset the renewable energy tax credits and other subsidies that had become the lifeblood of what President Trump labeled the “Green New Scam.”

After those provisions were stripped or sharply curtailed, the industry’s political arm went on offense. The same PAC spent $1.7 million helping defeat Freedom Caucus stalwart Chip Roy in his Texas attorney general primary. The ringleaders of the operation openly celebrated it as payback for Roy’s role in killing the subsidies and popularizing the “Green New Scam” label.

Peter Davidson of Aligned Climate Capital, a PAC founder, complained that “the whole demonization of the industry … all that came from the Freedom Caucus.”