The Mercers, Trump mega-donors, back group that casts doubt on climate science

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Conservative donor Rebekah Mercer attended the 12th International Conference on Climate Change, hosted by The Heartland Institute in Washington this week. (Oliver Contreras for The Washington Post)

By Matea Gold

and

Chris Mooney

March 27, 2017 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

The atmosphere was buoyant at a conference held by the conservative Heartland Institute last week at a downtown Washington hotel, where speakers denounced climate science as rigged and jubilantly touted deep cuts President Trump is seeking to make to the Environmental Protection Agency.

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Front and center during the two-day gathering were New York hedge fund executive Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah Mercer, Republican mega-donors who with their former political adviser Stephen K. Bannon helped finance an alternative media ecosystem that amplified Trump's populist themes during last year's campaign.

By Matea Gold

Matea Gold is a managing editor of The Washington Post, where she oversees several key newsroom departments, including national, local and investigative. Before that, she served as The Post’s national editor, leading a staff of more than 150 journalists. She also ran the national political enterprise and investigations team for four years. Twitter

By Chris Mooney

Chris Mooney is a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter covering climate change, energy, and the environment. He has reported from the 2015 Paris climate negotiations, the Northwest Passage, and the Greenland ice sheet, among other locations, and has written four books about science, politics and climate change.Twitter

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