News

NEW MOTION SEEKS DETAILS ON MARYLAND AGS USE OF BLOOMBERG FUNDED ATTORNEYS By Energy in Depth’s PATRICK HALL A new court filing in the lawsuit against Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh seeks to further pull back the curtain on the Michael Bloomberg-backed State Energy and Environmental Impact Center (SEEIC) at the NYU School of Law, and the program’s continued efforts to place privately-funded attorneys…

Jennifer Hijazi, E&E News reporter Published: Monday, August 19, 2019Conservative groups are raising new legal questions about state attorneys general who are involved in climate litigation and hire outside lawyers to work on the issue. In a lawsuit filed in state court last week, Washington state-based Energy Policy Advocates said Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D) must hand over records detailing his…

MINNESOTA, D.C., AND BALTIMORE UNDER THE MICROSCOPE FOR ACCEPTING CONTROVERSIAL HELP FROM SPECIAL INTERESTS The Minnesota Attorney General’s office is more than a thousand miles away from New York City, yet Michael Bloomberg’s money and influence are felt even there. A new lawsuit is challenging whether Minnesota AG Keith Ellison is able to accept a “Special Assistant Attorney General” from…

EMBARGOED For Release Until August 14, 2019 10 AM CDTContact: info “at” govoversight.org GAO Files Suit against Minnesota AG Ellison Over Refusal to Release Records re Bloomberg-Funded “Special Assistant AG”, Tort Bar Recruiting of AGs Group Reveals Ellison as newest AG to take Bloomberg-funded prosecutor Today the public interest law firm Government Accountability & Oversight, P.C. (GAO) filed suit against…

From Western Wire Pressure is building on New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas over his office’s use of attorneys that are paid for by a group created with financial backing of New York City Mayor and climate activist Michael Bloomberg. Balderas is one of 11 state attorneys general known to the public who has brought on such private attorneys funded…

By Kevin Mooney The Natural Resources Defense Council held close ties to the Obama administration, providing advice on joining the Paris Agreement while simultaneously maintaining ties to China, according to attorneys and policy analysts who have reviewed email records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. While many of the emails are heavily redacted, they provide insight into how…

Renewable Energy Agency Props Up Alarmist Panel Supporting Demands for Renewable Energy Agencies… President Eisenhower presciently warned of a “scientific-technological elite” as a threat alongside the “military-industrial complex”: “Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity.” In practice, government funding has underwritten something of a war on intellectual curiosity, if that…

By Chris Horner and Victoria Toensing, writing in the Wall Street Journal The State Energy and Environmental Impact Center, a group created by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2017, is hiring and placing lawyers in the offices of state attorneys general. The mission of the group, which is led by a former Interior Department official and housed…

Excerpts: Advocacy Group Pays Conference Fees for Mayor to Promote Energy Lawsuits Santa Cruz mayor will tout lawsuit against Exxon to other mayors An environmental advocacy group is paying the registration fees for Santa Cruz mayor Martine Watkins (D.) to attend the United States Conference of Mayors Summit in Hawaii later this month, where Watkins will speak in favor of…

Embedded AG fellows raise concerns Bloomberg nonprofit pays salaries of lawyers working for Dem AGs Coverage from CommonWealth Magazine by Sarah Betancourt – excerpts: A NONPROFIT BACKED with money from Michael Bloomberg is paying the salaries of 14 lawyers who are working on environmental and climate change issues for Democratic attorneys general around the country, including Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey.…

Excerpts From InsideSources by Jessica R. Towhey A New York state Supreme Court judge ruled Wednesday that ExxonMobil may access quarterly reports on a special program in the New York Attorney General’s office funded by a private, outside interest that officials have fought to keep secret. ExxonMobil is seeking the documents as part of its defense against a years’ long investigation…

Excerpts: Massachusetts AG and Supervisor of Public Records are targets of records lawsuit By James F. Russell, Correspondent Posted Jun 12, 2019 at 2:49 PM Updated Jun 12, 2019 at 4:30 PM BOSTON – A multimillion-dollar fund established by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a Democrat with a net worth Forbes.com estimates at $56 billion, is at the center of a lawsuit filed against two Massachusetts Democrats who hold…

FOIA suit seeks records concerning leaks, coordination of staff with outside parties, possible improper removal of records For immediate release. WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Government Accountability & Oversight, P.C. (GAO), filed suit against the Department of the Interior on behalf of the public policy transparency group Energy Policy Advocates (EPA). This federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) suit seeks records relating…

Secretary of State Named as Co-Defendant; Complaint Reveals Ex Parte Communications Today, with local counsel Tim Cornell of Cornell Dolan, P.C., the public interest law firm Government Accountability & Oversight, P.C. (GAO) filed suit against Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey under that state’s public records law on behalf of the nonprofit group Energy Policy Advocates (EPA). The suit seeks to…

On Monday afternoon, May 6, 2019, Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh filed an Answer in response to an open records lawsuit by Government Accountability & Oversight, P.C., a suit that seeks Frosh’s application to Michael Bloomberg’s “Center for State Impacts” for a privately hired prosecutor to “advanc[e] progressive clean energy, climate change, and environmental legal positions.” That Center hired and…

By Chris Horner Yesterday, Government Accountability & Oversight, P.C., with local counsel Graven Craig, responded to a risible effort (see PDF document here) recently filed by Virginia’s Attorney General Mark Herring, styled as a “Plea of Nulla Bona”, in a public records suit in the Circuit Court for Richmond (Virginia). That “artful pleading” came in a state Freedom of Information…

As Washington Gov. Jay Inslee comes to Capitol Hill Tuesday to teach us “lessons from across the nation: state and local action to combat climate change”, public records — including some released here for the first time — offer the public a few eye-opening lessons about what Gov. Jay Inslee has been up to. Ten Questions for Climate Industry Entrepreneur…

GAO previously reported the good news that Virginia’s elected representatives rejected Bloomberg’s money, saying he can’t buy his way into Virginia law enforcement via planting attorneys in the Virginia Attorney General office. AG Mark Herring has asked for Bloomberg’s resources “to advance the agenda represented by” a group created to  “advanc[e] progressive clean energy, climate change, and environmental legal positions”.  GAO…

In a spectacular defeat, The U.S. Senate voted down Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal 57-0, with 43 members simply voting “present”. A number of high-profile Democrats joined Republicans to show their disapproval of what many called a radical plan that would limit energy and travel options for most Americans. Democratic Senators  Joe Manchin of West Virginia,  Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona,…

Chris Horner, GAO Executive Director, appears on Hannity, to discuss the coordinated agenda behind climate change radicalism