Despite his suggestion last fall that a Hillary Clinton presidential candidacy could benefit from a more left-leaning challenger, billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer is opening his San Francisco home to the former secretary of state for a fundraiser on May 6,
Politico reports.
Steyer, a former hedge fund manager who is a staunch environmentalist and vocal opponent of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, spent $70 million of his personal wealth backing Democrats in the midterm elections,
according to NBC News.
Clinton has been conspicuously silent on where she stands on Keystone, saying repeatedly that she plans to wait for President Barack Obama to make a decision on it before she weighs in.
In February, Obama vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have approved construction of the $8 billion project to transport crude oil from Canada to Texas.
During a January visit to Canada,
the National Journal reported that Clinton reiterated her decision to keep mum.
"You won't get me to talk about Keystone because I have steadily made clear that I'm not going to express an opinion," she said.
While that position is a source of frustration for many environmentalists, others, such as the National Wildlife Federation's senior climate and energy program manager Lena Moffitt, say Clinton’s opinion is not as important as the president’s since it is he who is the "decision-maker.”
"We're not going to make this a litmus test, but we do want to make sure that Clinton recognizes that climate change must be a central consideration for any major infrastructure or energy project," Moffitt told the Journal. It also reported that "green groups” are feeling optimistic that Clinton will side with them considering that former Obama adviser John Podesta, who opposes the pipeline, is the chairman of Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign.
Even so, it may be too soon to call where Clinton will fall on the issue.
The day after the Steyer fundraiser, Clinton is scheduled to appear at the home of her friend, Susie Tompkins Bell, co-founder of the Esprit clothing company and an outspoken opponent of the Keystone, according to Politico.