Climate Accountability Group Calls On Harvard To Cut Ties with Lobbying Firm Connected To Tesla

Climate accountability company F Minus is set to release a report connecting Harvard to Tesla through a shared lobbying firm, Tremont Strategies, and is urging the University to cut ties with the lobbyists.

F Minus, a climate accountability group launched in 2023, publishes lists of lobbying firms that work for both climate advocacy groups and fossil fuel companies, to point out the relationships these lobbying firms have with conflicting client goals.

“We use all those tags to start to tell the story of the ways in which the fossil fuel lobbying these firms are doing is harming some of their other clients, or goes against what their other clients are trying to achieve on climate,” James Browning, the director and founder of F Minus, said.

“Then there’s also an advocacy piece where we urge these other clients to cut ties with these fossil fuel lobbying firms,” he added.

Tremont Strategies did not respond to requests for comment.

Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla, also serves as head of the Department of Government Efficiency. Since Trump took office in January, DOGE has cut more than $60 million from the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget, and cancelled more than 400 grants designated for air and water quality and extreme weather resilience of communities across the country.

Browning said that by working with lobbyist firms connected to Tesla, Harvard and other organizations are legitimizing the firm’s work with Musk.

“They’re sort of normalizing and enabling this firm to work with Musk and DOGE who are one of the biggest threats on climate overall right now,” Browning said.

Harvard spokesperson Amy Kamosa declined to comment on Harvard’s work with Tremont Strategies.

Harvard currently works with Tremont Strategies on the Allston I-90 Multimodal Project, an infrastructure project to replace the current highway ramps with a new grid system that allows for development on land owned by the University.

At the same time, Harvard has committed itself to ambitious climate goals. According to the University’s Sustainability Office, Harvard plans to be fossil fuel neutral by 2026. Browning said that he believes that hiring Tremont Strategies is “incompatible with Harvard’s values.”

F Minus has successfully pressured universities to cut ties with lobbying firms in the past. They worked to end John Hopkins University’s ties with a “coal lobbyist,” according to Browning. But he recognized that Harvard may be hesitant to change lobbying firms as the I-90 project remains in development.

Cole A. Cochrane ‘27, the Policy Director for the Harvard Undergraduate Clean Energy Group, said he hopes Harvard will cut ties with Tremont Strategies to send a message about their leading “interests, priorities, and principles.”

“When you have such a prestigious institution like Harvard, tell people one thing and then do another, I think it sets a double standard for the public and for other institutions, such as corporations or even academic institutions at large in the United States,” Cochrane said

“They’re a role model for not only the United States, but for the globe,” he added. “We should not promote hypocrisy as an institution that prides itself in honesty.”

—Staff writer Megan L. Blonigen can be reached at megan.blonigen@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X at @MeganBlonigen

—Staff writer Frances Y. Yong can be reached at frances.yong@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X at @frances_yong_.