How a Sub-prime Lender Influences Kansas Energy and Environment Policy

In an American Thinker article titled How allies of George Soros helped bring down Wachovia Bank, you can read about the business activities of Herbert and Marion Sandler:

Herbert and Marion Sandler, a New York lawyer and Wall Street analyst respectively, bought a small California thrift in 1963 and built it into GDW [Golden West Financial] — one of the largest thrifts in the nation. The company’s business was built on adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs. These were mortgages offered at low “teaser” rates that ratcheted upward as interest rates increased. They were often sold aggressively to unsophisticated home buyers who did not comprehend the vast financial risks they were taking, or who assumed that housing prices would rise high enough to provide a profit to them when they sold their houses. They were targets for lenders peddling mortgages that should have been stamped with a skull and crossbones, for these were among the most seductive and dangerous types of mortgage. …

The Sandlers knew their business far better than any other person could. Not only were they the founders and major owners, they famously ran the company as a husband and wife team for all these years.

Vilifying makers of sub-prime mortgages is not necessarily news. So what’s the link to Kansas?

Currently, Kansas is undergoing an evaluation of energy and environmental policy. Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius created the Kansas Energy and Environmental Policy Advisory Group (KEEP) for this purpose.

Here’s the link: in the Governor’s press release Sebelius prevents and reduces pollutants with veto, executive order, we’re told that “The process will be facilitated by the Center for Climate Strategies (CCS). Their work is supported by the Energy Foundation and the Sandler Family Supporting Foundation …”

There’s the connection.

In 2006, the Sandlers donated $1.3 billion of Golden West Financial stock to their foundation, the Sandler Family Supporting Foundation. It is this money that supports the formulation of Kansas energy and environmental policy.