Tycoon Tom Steyer offers green US congressmen US$100m to fight polls

A California hedge fund investor has pledged US$100 million to pro-environment US congressional election campaigns, bolstering the battle against climate change.

Billionaire Tom Steyer this week hosted Democratic US Senate leader Harry Reid of Nevada and six other Democratic lawmakers for a fundraiser at his San Francisco home. He is also planning an advertising campaign for candidates who support tough action on climate change.

Steyer, founder of the hedge fund Farallon Capital, plans to spend US$50 million of his own money and raise anotherUS$50 million from other donors for the November midterm elections.

His aim is for his NextGen Climate Action advocacy group to serve as a political counterweight to the conservative billionaire Koch brothers, who have already spent US$30 million this year on attack ads targeting vulnerable Democratic senators who have supported the healthcare reform law known as Obamacare.

Steyer hosted Reid and some of Congress' most active climate change advocates: Senators Sheldon Whitehouse, Jeanne Shaheen, Ben Cardin, Patrick Leahy, and Tom Udall, and House of Representatives member Gary Peters.

They were joined by former US vice-president Al Gore, who has spent much of his post-Washington life campaigning for strong climate change legislation, such as a carbon tax.

Steyer used the opportunity to share the latest results of a poll his group released that show voters are deeply concerned about the construction of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline.