White House says not taking aim at green group tax status

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The White House has no immediate plans to strip climate-focused non-profit organizations of their tax exempt status, a White House official said on Tuesday, as those groups marshalled efforts to prepare for a slew of executive orders.

"No such orders are being drafted or considered at this time," a White House official told Reuters.

The American Civil Liberties Union and Public Citizen held a Zoom call last week that was accessed by more than 5,000 people to discuss how charities can prepare for a possible executive action as soon as Tuesday, which is also Earth Day. A Reuters reporter was on the call.

At the same time, a political law firm Sandler Reiff circulated a memo, seen by Reuters, to its non-profit and philanthropy clients advising them not to panic if the administration attempts to revoke their tax-exempt status or freeze international work.

Concerns ran high after recent comments from President Donald Trump taking aim at the charitable status of Harvard University, seen as a potential first shot against other so-called 501(c)(3) organizations, named for the part of the tax code that exempts charities from income tax.

The White House did issue an Earth Day statement on Tuesday outlining steps his administration said it is taking to protect the environment, including supporting carbon capture and storage technology, nuclear energy, and geothermal energy; expanding responsible logging and forest management and ending the forced use of paper straws.

The statement promoted Trump's tariffs on China as a way to reduce "reliance on China’s high-pollution industries, ensuring the U.S. leads by example with cleaner production and responsible global stewardship."

The White House also pointed to recent orders to open up more federal lands to oil, gas and critical mineral development and rollbacks of federal air and water rules as environmental wins that encourage responsible energy projects.



(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Sonali Paul)