Enemies of Energy: Jeremy Grantham

Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from Enemies of Energy, a research report created for the Capital Research Center. The page for the full report is here: Enemies of Energy.

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Donor type: direct grant maker

In February 2013 a cabal of anti-energy activists (40,000-strong on a “bitterly cold day,” according to a Sierra Club report) arrived in Washington DC to protest against the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. According to report in The Guardian, one of the demonstrators was a British investment manager named Jeremy Grantham, who was reportedly 74 years old at the time. (Thirteen years later he is presumably aged 87 today). ^[i]

If it’s ever built, the Keystone extension would bring much more of Alberta’s bountiful heavy crude south to thirsty American oil refineries that are designed to process it. Canada has the world’s fourth largest proven oil reserves (behind Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and Iran) and most of it is located in Alberta. But much like Iran and Venezuela, too much of Alberta’s petroleum has been trapped by geography and bad policies that prevent it from getting efficiently to market. Despite having more proven reserves than the United States, Canada trails far behind America’s annual oil production. A burgeoning secessionist movement in Alberta is in part fueled by the Canadian government’s inability to build energy pipelines. [ii]

An April 2026 profile in Fortune described the “legendary” investment career of pipeline protester Jeremy Grantham: [iii]

Grantham is well known on Wall Street for his consistently pessimistic economic views, but the British investor has become famous for some prescient predictions as well.

In September 2007, Grantham wrote an article for Fortune titled “Danger: Steep Drop Ahead” in which he detailed how an international credit crisis would cause the U.S. housing market to break, corporate profit margins to sink, and stocks to collapse.

He turned out to be right. The U.S. housing market did break, and just six months after his Fortune article was published, the Great Financial Crisis began taking its first victims as the investment banking powerhouse Bear Stearns collapsed.

Some Wall Street analysts argue that even a broken clock is right twice, and that Grantham is nothing but a “permabear”—investor lingo for someone who is always pessimistic about the economy.

But the legendary British investor has been right more than often enough to lend weight to his predictions. He also foresaw Japan’s 1989 asset bubble and the dot-com bubble in 2000. And this time, he says the stock market’s “superbubble” is even worse than what was seen in tech stocks in 2000. ^[iv]

According to The Guardian report from 2013, Grantham had by that point engaged in “15 years of low-key environmental philanthropy,” but decided to ramp it up and “walk the walk” against Keystone XL. Then at the last minute, he decided to tone it down: ^[v]

“I was committed to getting arrested,” says Grantham [ . . .] “But the day before [the protest] my wife checked with the lawyer, who said, ‘Don’t do that!’” It turned out that being arrested would give him serious problems when it came to travelling. “I’ve had a green card since completing my MBA at Harvard in 1964.”^[vi]

Grantham’s daughter was arrested at the protest, along with what The Guardian claimed was “the US’s highest-profile environmentalist Bill McKibben.” McKibben is the founder of 350.org, the primary organizer NGO of the Keystone protest and an anti-energy group profiled in the previous section of this report.^[vii]

The Guardian report also covered an ironic admission about Grantham’s path to wealth accumulation: ^[viii]

More awkwardly, he insists his substantial investments in oil and gas don’t contradict his green views. “We need oil. If we took oil away tomorrow, civilisation ends. We can burn all the cheap, high-quality oil and gas, but if we mean to burn all the coal and any appreciable percentage of the tar sands, or even third-derivative, energy-intensive oil and gas, with ‘fracking’ for shale gas on the boundary, then we’re cooked, we’re done for.” ^[ix]

Putting it less charitably, it is possible to cast this as an act of selfish hypocrisy.

One need not be a billionaire investor to recognize the economic logic. At issue was an internationally traded commodity. Ramping up oil supply in one place reduces the price everywhere. Under the reasonable assumption that Grantham was not invested directly in Alberta’s oil, then the movement against Keystone XL was benefitting his bottom line by indirectly propping up the value of his oil investments in other regions.

Enhancing such a financial opportunity might inspire a lot of people to endure the temporary annoyance of a few hours in a DC jail (though admittedly not at the risk of getting deported afterwards).

Whatever his motives, Grantham was then and continues to be a very generous benefactor for the anti-energy movement. His two major giving platforms are the  Jeremy and Hannelore Grantham Environmental Trust and the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment. The most recent publicly available IRS filings from both donor nonprofits cover grantmaking during 2024. For simplicity of understanding, what follows combines the 2024 grantmaking from both. [x]

The pair of Grantham platforms gave a combined total of $23 million in 2024 to seven of the fifteen anti-energy NGOs profiled in the previous section of this report: ^[xi]

• Rocky Mountain Institute: $4.6 million
• World Wildlife Fund: $3.5 million
• League of Conservataion Voters Education Fund: $2 million
• Environmental Defense Fund: $1.2 million
• Earthjustice: $900,000
• org: $500,000
• Union of Concerned Scientists: $300,000

Additionally, the pair of Grantham donor nonprofits granted a combined total of $7 million in 2024 to two of the pass-through donors to anti-energy NGOs profiled in this section: ^[xii]

• Windward Fund: $5.7 million
• Climateworks Foundation: $1.3 million

Added all together, the seven anti-energy NGOs profiled in this report and two major pass-through funders to same received grants totaling more than $20 million from the two Grantham sources in 2024. ^[xiii]

PDF hyperlink to full report

Endnotes

[i] Hickman, Leo. “Jeremy Grantham, environmental philanthropist: ‘We’re trying to buy time for the world to wake up.’” The Guardian. April 12, 2013. Accessed April 8, 2026. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/apr/12/jeremy-grantham-environmental-philanthropist-interview?INTCMP=SRCH

Henn, Jamie. “Here’s How We Defeated the Keystone XL Pipeline.” Sierra Club. January 31, 2021. Accessed April 8, 2026. https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/here-s-how-we-defeated-keystone-xl-pipeline

[ii] Oil Production by Country (2024). Worldometer. Accessed April 8, 2026. https://www.worldometers.info/oil/oil-production-by-country/

Oil Reserves by Country (2025). Worldometer. Accessed April 8, 2026. https://www.worldometers.info/oil/oil-reserves-by-country/

Murphy, Jessica. “’A natural partner’: US treasury secretary weighs in on Alberta separatism.” BBC. January 23, 2026. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy8ylqx0zw4o

Mohamed, Rahim. “Support for Alberta separatism at a 5-year high: poll.” National Post. April 8, 2026. Accessed April 9, 2026. https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/support-for-alberta-separatism-at-a-5-year-high-poll

[iii] Daniel, Will. “Legendary investor Jeremy Grantham says stocks could plunge another 25% as the ‘superbubble’ continues to pop.” April 8, 2026. Accessed April 8, 2026. https://www.aol.com/articles/legendary-investor-jeremy-grantham-says-164343148.html

[iv] Daniel, Will. “Legendary investor Jeremy Grantham says stocks could plunge another 25% as the ‘superbubble’ continues to pop.” April 8, 2026. Accessed April 8, 2026. https://www.aol.com/articles/legendary-investor-jeremy-grantham-says-164343148.html

[v] Hickman, Leo. “Jeremy Grantham, environmental philanthropist: ‘We’re trying to buy time for the world to wake up.’” The Guardian. April 12, 2013. Accessed April 8, 2026. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/apr/12/jeremy-grantham-environmental-philanthropist-interview?INTCMP=SRCH

[vi] Hickman, Leo. “Jeremy Grantham, environmental philanthropist: ‘We’re trying to buy time for the world to wake up.’” The Guardian. April 12, 2013. Accessed April 8, 2026. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/apr/12/jeremy-grantham-environmental-philanthropist-interview?INTCMP=SRCH

[vii] Hickman, Leo. “Jeremy Grantham, environmental philanthropist: ‘We’re trying to buy time for the world to wake up.’” The Guardian. April 12, 2013. Accessed April 8, 2026. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/apr/12/jeremy-grantham-environmental-philanthropist-interview?INTCMP=SRCH

[viii] Hickman, Leo. “Jeremy Grantham, environmental philanthropist: ‘We’re trying to buy time for the world to wake up.’” The Guardian. April 12, 2013. Accessed April 8, 2026. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/apr/12/jeremy-grantham-environmental-philanthropist-interview?INTCMP=SRCH

[ix] Hickman, Leo. “Jeremy Grantham, environmental philanthropist: ‘We’re trying to buy time for the world to wake up.’” The Guardian. April 12, 2013. Accessed April 8, 2026. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/apr/12/jeremy-grantham-environmental-philanthropist-interview?INTCMP=SRCH

[x] The Grantham Foundation For The Protection Of The Environment. (EIN: 04-6856456). 2024 IRS Form 990. Accessed April 9, 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/46856456/202513219349105041/full

Jeremy And Hannelore Grantham Environmental Trust. (EIN: 20-3959397). 2024 IRS Form 990. Accessed April 9, 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/203959397/202543219349322204/full

[xi] The Grantham Foundation For The Protection Of The Environment. (EIN: 04-6856456). 2024 IRS Form 990. Accessed April 9, 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/46856456/202513219349105041/full

Jeremy And Hannelore Grantham Environmental Trust. (EIN: 20-3959397). 2024 IRS Form 990. Accessed April 9, 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/203959397/202543219349322204/full

[xii] The Grantham Foundation For The Protection Of The Environment. (EIN: 04-6856456). 2024 IRS Form 990. Accessed April 9, 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/46856456/202513219349105041/full

Jeremy And Hannelore Grantham Environmental Trust. (EIN: 20-3959397). 2024 IRS Form 990. Accessed April 9, 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/203959397/202543219349322204/full

[xiii] The Grantham Foundation For The Protection Of The Environment. (EIN: 04-6856456). 2024 IRS Form 990. Accessed April 9, 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/46856456/202513219349105041/full

Jeremy And Hannelore Grantham Environmental Trust. (EIN: 20-3959397). 2024 IRS Form 990. Accessed April 9, 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/203959397/202543219349322204/full