Naked Capitalism has the article Gaius Publius: Hillary, TPP, the World of Money, and the Center for American Progress. Here are a few of the shocking statements in the article. (I have left out the links that are in the excerpts in the original article. You’ll have to go to the article if you want to see them.)

• Exxon is one of the largest owners of unmonetized methane (yet-to-be-fracked natural gas) in the country.
• “Left-wing” support groups and think tanks like EDF (Environmental Defense Fund) and NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) strongly support (pdf) the “temporary” transition to natural gas as a bridge fuel.
• By many reports both EDF and NRDC receive money in various ways, as well as advice, from the oil and gas industry and their advocates.

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One of the most important — and “centrist” (code for “corporate-friendly”) — think tanks in the Democratic Party ecosystem is the Center for American Progress, or CAP. They do some good work, and their associated Web group, ThinkProgress, does excellent work. But when it comes time to put their “money” where Money’s mouth is — for example, to support cuts to Social Security and Medicare — CAP is on the anti-progressive side, and reliably so.

I was unaware of the influence of corporate money in some of these organizations. I feel played like a Tea Party member who didn’t realize that the Tea Party was invented and funded by the Koch brothers.