News

As reported here today:

As noted here, New York Office of the Attorney General fired the first shots in a national campaign of lawfare designed to coerce defendants “to the table” in support of unpopular national ‘climate’ (i.e., energy-constraint) policy. As also revealed, in so doing the Office’s attorneys abandoned their own well-founded misgivings, ultimately agreeing to push a pre-packaged “subpoena suggestion” pitched to…

This document just released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency takes the cake. Particularly on the heels of this email from a well-placed (and he wants you to know it!) Washington lawyer to his alma mater, UCLA Law School. Lookie here:  

GAO’s work to examine the deployment of federal programs and agencies toward political ends—and how it comes about—has come across what seems to be yet another example of agency capture. Whenever an initiative quashed by a previous administration gets revived once those who killed it are no longer around to supervise, it warrants transparency. Ditto when agencies appear to single…

Readers may recall the March 17, 2021 WSJ editorial nicely summarizing a February 2021 amicus brief filed on behalf of Energy Policy Advocates in State of New York v. EPA. That is the progressive AGs’ effort to orchestrate a sue-and-settle to impose stronger ozone standards as a means of forcing GHG reductions. (It is fair to view that move as the Patient Zero of what has emerged…

Those who follow GAO’s work will recognize the themes set forth in this letter, sent today by House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer and Ranking Senate Commerce Committee member Sen. Ted Cruz and first reported here. While addressed to a law firm engaged by numerous progressive elected officials—to which these politicians promised so many millions out of their taxpayers’ supposed…

InsideEPA reports on some For Us, By Us nuttery representing the Left’s “some are more equal than others” view of the public seeking equal rights to access public records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).   As this email obtained in GAO v. Regents affirms, it is also precisely the brand of crackpottery an insider whispered, around inauguration time,…

An item in Forbes today writes about a recent Consumers’ Research study that heavily cites GAO, some of which is also linked to by the writer. As noted in today’s summary: Read the story here, and the whole report here.

Counsel for GAO in numerous open records lawsuits Chris Horner had an opinion piece leading Friday’s Wall Street Journal Opinion page. The scheme revealed is reminiscent of the machinations detailed in this amicus brief, filed by Horner on behalf of Energy Policy Advocates and which revealed early on the Biden EPA’s interest in going around the law to impose the…

Readers of Climate Litigation Watch are familiar with both the recent machinations in New Jersey, and also the curiousso-called “contingency” relationship between progressive politicians and the plaintiffs’ bar. Emails obtained in GAO v. Regents confirmed that the law firm filing the bulk of these suits is already being paid millions of dollars to file them. These millions first came as “charitable grants” for, oddly, purposes that differed…

FOIA Litigation reveals eye-opening breadth and depth of climate activist involvement with Biden Administration Coordination extends beyond SEC, to White House, EPA, others Energy Policy Advocates has obtained 501 pages from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation over records pertaining to the involvement of a “climate” rent-seeker, Persefoni, and its partners Ceres and…

From the “Oh, they’d never do that” department we see a couple of emails produced the other night in Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation by Energy Policy Advocates. There’s nothing quite like preparing well in advance to declare a (checks notes) “climate emergency”. Hey, one can never be too prepared!  Even more amusing — in a rather dark, very…

Readers may recall this failure to disclose by EPA air office nominee Joseph Goffman, architect of the overturned Obama-Biden Clean Power Plan who is back at it now in the Biden administration — despite the record suggesting his own actions and disregard for the law are such that he should be nowhere near any such authority, or even in the…

Government Accountability & Oversight has filed suit against the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) for its failure to release records about — recent headlines affirm — yet another federal government agency failing to engage in its core responsibilities or competencies in favor of politicization.

Court orders House to brief whether the Congress, Speaker, and Oversight Committee are immune from public scrutiny Committee use of donor-provided ‘staff’ to drive “year-long investigation” — apparently (see UPDATE, below) later handed over to plaintiffs’ bar — at issue See here, here, here, here, here and/or here for the fascinating backstory behind this suit, and the weaponization of a congressional “climate”…

“Watch the theme of “environmental justice”- it will subsume much policy orientation going forward” GAO readers may have seen this recent item about the New Green Blob that’s eating the Old Blob, and the bitter power struggles along the way, in keeping with Sayre’s Law (though admittedly the number of dollars being redistributed is so high). Now we were reminded of…

Old Westerns remind us what happens when it comes time to split up the loot Recent coverage of “environmental justice” money being thrown around (a billion here and a billion there, pretty soon…) . reminded GAO of some transition-era emails — including from a recent Biden White House promotion (and, speaking of hijacking agendas and authorities) — suggesting that this…

We don’ need no stinking SCOTUS opinions? The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works has announced a Wednesday confirmation hearing for former Obama Environmental Protection Agency climate guru Joe Goffman to be Assistant Administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation at the EPA. Goffman has served in an acting capacity or otherwise in-waiting since joining the Biden transition team,…

GAO wrote yesterday about the D.C. Circuit ordering new Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy to state his view on whether the House should be free from public scrutiny of (i.e., continue to keep secret) the machinations behind the importation of donor-provided ‘ringer’ staff — off the books and in violation of House rules, incidentally —  to plot and execute the…

The Washington Times has a rather substantial exclusive up this morning, “Green groups, government officials meet secretly to plot end of gas stoves and appliances”. The piece keys off of the very real issue  of using the state to ban gas stoves, expanding across the country and which recently stumbled onto the national stage with a clumsily half-baked “reveal” in…