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Minutemen, the MA OAG are Not As GAO has previously noted, the Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General has engaged in a pattern and practice of stalling to avoid meeting its obligation of public transparency about its operations. Now, Energy Policy Advocates has filed an emergency motion arising out of this pattern and the bad faith involved in EPA v.…

The docket in Energy Policy Advocates v. Healey (II) shows that MA OAG has at long last answered court-ordered interrogatories about its withholdings of records reflecting work behind its launching of activist climate litigation (for more background see here). Maura Healey left office in January 2023, so the case style does reflect that, unfortunately, MA OAG is not cured of its…

GAO has discerned some possible further politicking with and (surprise!) pen-and-a-phone scheming within the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid. Further cross-checks are underway to confirm whether what appears to be is in fact the case but, for the moment, GAO is refreshing this post with more, recent document productions from CMS, here, here and here. Previously, GAO posted: See here for updates…

As noted here, In September California Attorney General Rob Bonta joined the climate litigation cavalcade seeking to pay for green new deal goodies without openly raising taxes. It was a funny lawsuit: Gov. Gavin Newsom flew to New York City to announce it to a “Climate Week” audience more receptive than constituents suffering under punishing gasoline prices. Bonta then flew…

Sources say January 2024 “pause” to study the impacts of LNG exports is based on a fib; that the macroeconomic study was in fact already produced, in 2023, but gave ‘wrong’ answer and was buried Today, Government Accountability & Oversight (GAO) filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Department of Energy, over DoE’s failure to provide even the…

GAO has filed a motion in one of it’s federal FOIA cases styled as GAO v SEC (23-3268), in which it points out various findings about that “independent Commission’s” ideological advocacy as part of the Biden administration’s “whole of government” approach to imposing a never-enacted “climate” agenda. Items noted include: Background relating to the FOIA request that was at issue…

Last year, GAO filed a New Jersey OPRA suit for the contract (and disclosures) between the Garden State’s Attorney General and climate-plaintiffs’ law firm Sher Edling, LLP—some very basic details the plaintiffs seem to be very concerned about the public seeing, whatever the jurisdiction, after a few arrangements made their way into the public domain. GAO is pleased to report…

GAO was struck by a parenthetical aside in today’s opinion piece by RFF director and climate lawfare impresario Lee Wasserman, the most recent entry in a stepped-up advocacy campaign being waged by the Rockefeller Family Fund and various activist groups it supports: “The Rockefeller Family Fund, which I direct, has spent roughly $200,000 since 2022 in support of environmental efforts…

Referring back to this, this, this this this this and this item, here we see an actual check to pay for a climate ‘staff’ member in the Wisconsin state government. Some of whom are being expressly provided for “UN Strengthening.” UPDATE: Wisconsin Office of Sustainability and Clean Energy’s production is accessible here. The Office wrote that “certain information was withheld…

President Biden has nominated former Massachusetts Undersecretary of Energy and Climate Solutions, Judy Chang, to be a FERC Commissioner. Ms. Chang is possibly best well-known for a 2018 comment staking out the position that because New England would move away from natural gas within the next five years it was irresponsible to invest in pipelines. At the time—let alone six…

With Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel filing the “climate” lawsuit that campaign supporter Michigan LCV had lobbied her to file against energy companies, and the UM law school faculty putting the shoulder to the wheel as well, GAO recalls the recently unearthed record of just how occupied Michigan’s government is with donor-financed “climate staff”. First, recall Nessel’s embrace of taking…

Relevant to GAO’s recent item about the climate lobby’s Plan C—a “Climate Superfund”—and the increasing legislative interest in what progressive politicians knew and when they knew it about third-party underwriting of a climate-plaintiffs’ law firm (see here, and here), GAO has filed suit against the Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General seeking withheld records involving the AG’s contingency-ish agreement to bring…

The case against this abuse has been building for some time. Following up on the details summarized in this Wall Street Journal editorial in the Spring of 2021, this op-ed last summer, and this post announcing GAO’s amicus brief in Kentucky et al. v. EPA et al., late last week the Journal ran an editorial by attorney for GAO Chris Horner…

Government Accountability & Oversight filed a Michigan FOIA lawsuit against the Regents of the University of Michigan, for the Law School’s categorical refusal to even consider or process GAO’s open records requests seeking how the institution is being used to advance an activist litigation agenda. Background to that work, let’s just call it Plan C, a tax-and-spend “Climate Superfund,” is…

Today, April 25, 2024, the Biden Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized its unconstitutional “suite of rules” being imposed to force premature retirement of politically disfavored sources of electricity generation. Also, GAO just obtained a copy of this letter to the EPA. It turns out the pressure groups really, really wanted the Agency to make sure to “finalize and implement the strongest…

Following on these three posts: In 2021 the Wisconsin Department of Administration accepted $168,132 from UNF for “UN Strengthening,” in the form of two grants ($88,132 and $88,000); in 2020 the Maine Governor’s Office accepted $298,600 from the UNF[2] and in 2021 $519,400 (again, most of the latter reported to the IRS as being for “UN Strengthening”[3]), to advance the…

“Whole of government,” backdoor “climate” agenda placed before D.C. Circuit “To believe the Administrator’s own words, or not to believe—that is the question.” April 5, 2024: This morning, Government Accountability & Oversight (GAO) filed an Amicus Brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Commonwealth of Kentucky, et al., v. EPA. The brief sets forth how…

GAO is encouraged to see Wisconsonites rejecting the use of billionaire bucks run through their charities to finance the operations of at least one aspect of governance, the administration of elections. But, why oh why is this now agreed to be a bad thing for the integrity of administering the electoral process but acceptable for administering, say, the justice system?…

Following on this item, we see The Hayride has an in-depth followup on GAO’s findings regarding donor financing behind the current administration’s—and progressive state officials’—push to suppress access to affordable and abundant, reliable energy.

See here for updates on CMS political coordination with the White House as covered in the Wall Street Journal and other publications. UPDATE: April 15, 2024 production is here. UPDATE: April 22, 2024 production is here. UPDATE: April 29, 2024 production is here. UPDATE: April 30, 2024 production is here. UPDATE: May 15, 2024 production is here. UPDATE: May 21,…