Bloomberg adds \\$30mn to coal fight: UpdateOREANDA-NEWS. April 09, 2015. Bloomberg Philanthropies, the charitable foundation established by billionaire former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is donating another \\$30mn to the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign, increasing its investment in the effort by nearly 38pc.

The new funds add to \\$50mn that Bloomberg's charitable foundation donated to the environmental group's campaign in 2011. Bloomberg will also lead "more than a dozen" donors in efforts to match the latest donation, the foundation and the Sierra Club said today.

The Sierra Club will use the new money to support grassroots organizing and litigation efforts as well as to "continue to push regulators to crack down on harmful pollution and replace dirty power generation capacity with solar, wind and energy efficiency." The initial donation helped the group expand its Beyond Coal campaign to 45 states from 15, which it says has led to 187 coal-fired power plant retirements or retirement announcements as well as 7.7pc reduction in CO2 emissions from 2006 levels.

Members of the group seeking to match Bloomberg's \\$30mn include individual donors, family foundations and major philanthropic organizations such as the Hewlett Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Yellow Chair Foundation, the Grantham Foundation and the Sandler Famly Foundation.

Coal industry groups decried today's announcement. National Mining Association chief executive Hal Quinn warned that US consumers' electricity bills could rise further as a result of efforts supported by the added funding The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity was also critical.

"The notion that 5pc of the energy our country gets from wind and solar can somehow replace 40pc of electricity Americans get from coal is simply absurd," the group said. "Instead of trying to make headlines, environmentalists could be partnering with industry to make headway in providing cleaner, reliable energy to Americans across the country and around the world."

Bloomberg's support of the Sierra Club's campaign drew negative attention during last year's congressional election campaigns, when some said the fact that Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Kentucky) wife Elaine Chao was on the organization's board ran counter to McConnell's claims of supporting the coal industry. Chao resigned from the board in January.