This Liberal Outlet Attacked Trump For Conflicts Of Interest. It Didn’t Disclose Its Own.

A liberal journalism publication pushing the narrative that money drives the Trump administration’s environmental actions did not disclose its own financial ties to the well-funded world of climate activism, a watchdog organization found. 

ProPublica published a series of articles suggesting that donations from a billionaire businessman influenced the EPA’s decision to roll back methane regulations. What ProPublica did not disclose is that the experts it turned to were funded by the same groups backing their journalism, according to an analysis by the American Accountability Foundation. 

“ProPublica’s premise is that money shapes methane policy,” a memo shared with The Daily Wire by the American Accountability Foundation found. “ProPublica asks readers to connect a donor’s money to a policy outcome. By that standard, ProPublica’s methane coverage deserves the same scrutiny.”

ProPublica has received tens of millions in funding from foundations that bankroll climate activism, including efforts to crack down on methane pollution. An American Accountability Foundation analysis of grants given to ProPublica over $50,000 between 2023 and 2025 found that more than 57% came from groups with a clear environmental goal, while 25% came from groups with some funding for environmental groups. 

This funding was not noted in a series of articles, published in June and September 2026, focusing on donations from Hilcorp founder Jeffery Hildebrand to President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign. The articles were written by Alex Cuadros, who notes in his biography that he is “particularly interested in the actions of influential individuals, from billionaires to scientists, making decisions that affect the climate.” Cuadros previously received a fellowship from the Pulitzer Center Rainforest Journalism Fund for past environmental reporting. 

Hildebrand’s business involves buying low-producing oil or natural gas wells that can produce lots of methane pollution. The stories link Hildebrand’s donations to the hiring of a former Hilcorp lobbyist to deregulate methane restrictions at the EPA.

While pointing fingers at the Trump administration, ProPublica did not note that it shares the same funding source as the environmental groups it quoted in its articles. 

“ProPublica likes to attack businesses and conservatives regarding bias and conflicts of interest. What they don’t want you to do is dig into their ‘reporting’ for bias and conflicts of interest,” American Accountability Foundation President Tom Jones told The Daily Wire. 

The articles quote or use photos and data from environmental groups like Earthworks, the Clean Air Task Force, Carbon Mapper, Ceres, and the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. Each of these groups shares at least one funding source with ProPublica.

For example, ProPublica’s article used infrared photos and video from Earthworks, which says it is “mobilizing to protect the climate and frontline communities from Trump’s agenda.” Both Earthworks and ProPublica share one major donor: the MacArthur Foundation. 

The MacArthur Foundation has given over $8 million to ProPublica since 2007, and it has given over $7 million to Earthworks since 2017, including the bankrolling of some of its infrared technology. Additionally, the MacArthur Foundation specifically gave millions towards Earthworks’ goal of reducing methane emissions. 

In 2021, MacArthur boasted that it was “driving methane reduction efforts for several years by supporting the work of groups” including the Clean Air Task Force and Earthworks, both quoted by ProPublica.

MacArthur also gave money to Ceres, a group that is quoted in ProPublica’s article. 

In addition to the MacArthur Foundation, the Clean Air Task Force and ProPublica share the Skyline Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, and the Heising-Simons Foundation as funding sources. This was not noted in ProPublica’s article that referred to the Clean Air Task Force as an advocate “for cutting emissions.”

Earthworks and the Clean Air Task Force are involved in a lawsuit against the EPA over methane regulations, a fact that is not noted in the ProPublica articles.

Similarly, the Zegar Family Foundation has given to both ProPublica ($150,000 in 2024) and Carbon Mapper ($3 million between 2021 and 2023). The journalism platform has also received $8 million from the Sandler Foundation, which gave $2.5 million to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis from 2023 to 2025. 

The Sandler Foundation’s president is Steven Daetz, a director at ProPublica and a former treasurer for environmental litigation group Earthjustice. Earthjustice previously described itself as “instrumental in resisting the first Trump administration’s efforts to attack” methane regulations. 

A ProPublica spokesman denied that the Hewlett or MacArthur foundations “directly support our environmental reporting,” and said that “when there are potential conflicts or needed disclosures, we state those publicly, in the stories.”

“Our investigations aren’t driven by partisan or ideological agendas,” the spokesman added. “Neither our donors nor board members have a say as to which organizations we partner with or which stories we pursue.”

“Neither story tells readers that Earthworks, Clean Air Task Force, Carbon Mapper, Ceres, and IEEFA are financed by foundations that also finance ProPublica, or that Earthworks and Clean Air Task Force are litigants challenging EPA’s methane delay,” the American Accountability Foundation found. 

ProPublica notes in its code of ethics that it is committed to identifying “any important bias” a source might have. 

“ProPublica’s research and reporting operations are funded by Left-wing climate extremists and the reporter who authored the story had his fellowship funded by Left-wing climate zealots,” Jones told The Daily Wire. “Our research shows that, at the end of the day, ProPublica is just another group of advocates and its funders got their money’s worth in the methane articles.” 

In addition to its sources being funded by its donors, the American Accountability Foundation noted that many of ProPublica’s biggest donors have poured tens of millions into groups or initiatives against methane pollution. 

The watchdog noted that tax returns show that ProPublica donors the MacArthur Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, Heising-Simons Foundation, Skyline Foundation, and the Zegar Family Foundation have collectively given more than $35 million to groups pushing for crackdowns on methane pollution. 

Several of the groups — including Hewlett, MacArthur, and Zegar Family Foundation —  were part of an October 2021 pledge to give $328 million to “drastically reduce methane emissions around the world.” Multiple of the foundations are also linked to the Global Methane Hub, which focuses on combating methane pollution, and the Environmental Defense Fund and its MethaneSAT project. 

ProPublica donors Hewlett, MacArthur, Skyline, and Zegar all gave millions to the Global Methane Hub. The MacArthur Foundation gave $5 million between 2021 and 2023 to the Environmental Defense Fund, with one of the specific purposes being “to cut methane emissions.”

The American Accountability Foundation said it was hypocritical for ProPublica to be funded so heavily by anti-methane pollution groups while going after the influence of money in environmental policies.

“Readers of its methane coverage were not told that the sources, the reporter’s past backer, and ProPublica itself draw on the same pool of anti-methane money,” the watchdog said. “In fact, the people financing the report and the publisher of the story have a clear biased agenda that is incredibly well funded and organized, public reporting being only a small part of those advocacy efforts.”