Patagonia announced it will use the $10 million it saved from GOP tax cuts and donate the money to various environmental causes.
“This holiday season, Patagonia is giving away the $10 million in unplanned cash we saw as a result of last year’s irresponsible tax cut,” company spokeswoman Tessa Byars wrote in a Wednesday blog post.
“This additional $10 million will go a long way for the groups defending our air, water, and land. It will also include support for the regenerative organic agriculture movement, which we think will not only slow the climate crisis but could begin to reverse it.”
Patagonia is referring to the tax reform bill — which slashed corporate rates from 35 percent to 21 percent — passed by congressional Republicans and signed into law by President Donald Trump in December 2017.
Over 160 U.S. companies have since announced employee pay raises, bonuses and added investments because of the money saved from the tax cuts.
However, Patagonia — an outdoor clothing company with a long history of environmental activism — is no fan of the new tax law.
Byars accused the cuts of being a “windfall for the oil and gas industry” that puts more wildlife areas at risk of fossil fuel exploration.
When asked about where exactly the $10 million will be going, a Patagonia spokesman directed The Daily Caller News Foundation to a list of environmental causes that are current recipients of the company’s donations.
Such causes include the ending of new offshore drilling; protecting the Arctic refuge; protecting salmon in the Bristol Bay region; and a host of other initiatives.
“Patagonia has been giving grants to environmental non-profits for over 30 years and this $10M will be in addition to over $100M we have already given in our company’s history,” a company spokesman wrote to TheDCNF.
The California-based company has donated money to environmental organizations that initiate lawsuits blocking fossil fuel development.
Earthworks — which has been party to a number of lawsuits against the Trump administration — touted its status as a Patagonia grantee on Thursday.
We are proud to be a @patagonia grantee. https://t.co/qxW9BmWYAT
— Earthworks (@Earthworks) November 29, 2018
Patagonia has sued the Trump administration over a number of environmental and land issues.
“Our government continues to ignore the seriousness and causes of the climate crisis. It is pure evil,” Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard said in a statement Wednesday. “We need to double down on renewable energy solutions. We need an agriculture system that supports small family farms and ranches, not one that rewards chemical companies intent on destroying our planet and poisoning our food.”
The donation announcement is another indication that the clothing company is becoming more politically engaged in the Trump era.
Patagonia endorsed Democratic senatorial candidates Jon Tester of Montana and Jacky Rosen in Nevada, both of whom won their respective races in November.
Patagonia did not specify to TheDCNF when exactly the $10 million will be doled out.
Read more at Daily Caller
One more business I’ll never buy from. And instead of raising the pay of employees the company gives to groups seeking to destroy the US. Good job!
Well said!
Just another liberal run buisness to add to the Boycott list along with Ben & Jerry let them know why we will never again patronize their stores of buy their products ever again
What happens when a business goes ‘anti’. Dick’s Sporting Goods stopped carrying AR-15 style rifles. ABC (?) or one of the Mess Media, is now reporting that the sale of hunting rifles is down – at Dick’s Sporting Goods!!!! There are folk out there who just don’t seen to be able to put two and two together and come up with almost four. (Some of the early hand-held calculators did just that. Sinclair Scientific – used Reverse Polish Notation.)