Overview

E&E Legal conducts primary research and utilizes public records requests to document widespread abuse that exists between certain federal and state regulators and public officials, and ‘green’ groups supported by large benefactors with vested ideological, financial and political agendas.  The success of far-left environmental groups, supported by cheerleading media, can be traced to the likes of large family foundations led by the Rockefeller’s, Hewlett-Packard, as well as billionaire elitists such as George Soros and Tom Steyer.  They help fund dangerous policies such as the Clean Power Plan, the Paris Treaty, and the “keep in the ground” movement, which lines their pockets with the inevitable shift to ‘green technologies’ where they and their fellow cronies are well positioned.  They are manipulate energy markets, and buy up assets of traditional fossil fuel companies devastated by the onslaught of pressure generated by their various front groups.

Below are the investigatory reports E&E Legal has released, and other actions the group has taken to expose corruption and collusion.

E&E Legal’s Investigatory Reports & Actions

E&E Legal Releases Video Telling the History of NY AG Eric Schneiderman-Led Climate Crusade 

On October 17, 2017, E&E Legal released today a video thoroughly tracing the sordid details of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s ‘climate-RICO’ campaign that aimed to silence political opposition to the climate agenda, while extracting a settlement fund that would underwrite various political constituencies — including the climate industry.

Press Release.

E&E Legal Releases Report Detailing Links between Environmental NGOs and Population Control Extremists

On September 25, 2017, E&E Legal released new research that details how major environmental non-government organizations (ENGOs) in the U.S. and U.K. are being funded by a few ultra-wealthy population control extremists in the United States. This new report from E&E Legal and the U.K. based Taxpayers’ Alliance details how billionaires like Fred Stanback, heir to the Stanback headache powder fortune, and others are quietly funding ENGOs with enormous levels of funding to apparently further their personal agendas.  Stanback in particular is closely aligned with some of the most notorious anti-immigrant and population control groups and leaders in the United States.

Press release.

E&E Legal Releases Energy Poverty Video to Encourage President Trump to Remain Firm on U.S. Commitment to Withdraw from Paris Treaty

On September 21, 2017, E&E Legal  released an updated version of its Energy Poverty video, elaborating on the terrible human cost of “climate” policies (with no actual projected impact on climate), noting political and legal developments since President Trump’s dramatic announcement on June 1, 2017, that the United States would withdraw from the United Nations-led Paris global warming treaty.

E&E Legal Senior Official Presents Shareholder Proposal at ExxonMobil Annual Meeting

On May 31, 2017, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow Steve Milloy presented a shareholder proposal at ExxonMobil ’s annual meeting in Dallas, Texas.  His shareholder proposal, Nuisance Shareholders, states : “That the Company amend its bylaws to no longer permit shareholders to submit precatory (non-binding or advisory) proposals for consideration at annual shareholder meetings, unless the board of directors takes specific action to approve submission of such proposals.”  The goal of his proposal is to call to task ExxonMobil management for it’s lack of fight against extremist ‘climate activists’ who are trying to bankrupt the oil & gas company.  In his 2-minute presentation, Milloy reminded shareholders of ExxonMobil’s support of a carbon tax, their efforts to keep the United States in the economically disastrous Paris Accord, and other efforts the company is undertaking to appease a far-left group who advocates for the end of fossil fuel in America and the world.

Media Advisory.

E&E Legal Releases Updated Report Detailing Extensive Collusion Between EPA and Green Activists in Writing 111(d), 111(b) Rules

On December 20, 2016, E&E Legal released a report, The Rockefeller Way: The Family’s Covert ‘Climate Change’ Plan.  The report provides a short history of the family’s undue influence in U.S. policy making and details how the they have used their vast influence over the climate change movement to organize an aggressive media campaign and legal strategy aimed at taking down ExxonMobil and the rest of the fossil fuel industry.  A short video accompanies the report.

Accompanying video.

Press release.

E&E Legal Releases Video Highlighting Hillary Clinton’s Approach For Suffering Coal Regions: “We’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business”

On September 26, 2016, E&E Legal released a short 50 second video juxtaposing Hillary Clinton’s emphatic vow during her party’s presidential primaries last spring, that she intends to put “a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business”, with visual reminders of the suffering that agenda has already imposed.  Clinton made the comments at a town hall meeting in Ohio, a state that has suffered significantly by the current Administration’s “War on Coal”, which then-candidate Obama announced with similar remarks to the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board.

Press release.

E&E Legal Releases Updated Report Detailing Extensive Collusion Between EPA and Green Activists in Writing 111(d), 111(b) Rules

On September 20, 2016, after a long-delayed, nearly 500-page document production from EPA last week, E&E Legal updated its report detailing the degree to which EPA worked with outside special interest groups such as the Sierra Club, Clean Air Task Force and NRDC to craft its global warming rules. This report includes new revelations about senior EPA officials’ work on what one called an “offline channel” with reporters, industry lobbyists and green groups on numerous EPA rules with the intention to circumvent federal record keeping and transparency laws. These are included in an appendix to the report. Even Democratic congressional aides sought to use the “offline” account to coordinate on EPA issues.

Accompanying video.

Press release.

E&E Legal Exposes Illegality of EPA Human Experiments at Special Public Meeting of National Academy of Sciences

On August 24, 2016, the illegality of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s experiments on human beings with deadly pollutants was exposed by Energy and Environment Legal Institute senior legal fellow and JunkScience.com publisher Steve Milloy at a special convened meeting of the National Academy of Sciences.

For years, EPA has quietly been experimenting on humans with what the agency describes as deadly pollutants, including soot and diesel exhaust. Though the EPA tells the public and Congress that there is no safe exposure to these pollutants, it experiments with them at very high doses on people who the EPA says are most vulnerable to them, including the elderly (up to age 80), children (as young as age 10 years), and sick people with asthma, diabetes and heart disease.

Press release.

E&E Legal Releases Report Detailing Efforts by Billionaire Tom Steyer to Bankroll Elections and Stifle ‘Climate Change’ Debate to Protect his Solar Investments

On July 25, 2016, E&E Legal released a report, Buying the Democrat Party Lock, Stock and Barrel, which details how billionaire Tom Steyer’s is seeking to protect his solar energy investments by spending tens of millions of dollars on key 2016 races, buying a plank in the 2016 Democrat platform, and trying to silence debate from those who challenge his view on ‘climate change’ by using select attorneys general to prosecute ‘dissenters.’

As the report notes, Steyer is a leading mega-donor of both the Democratic Party and the climate change movement, and thus is in a unique position to use his vast wealth to sway the Democratic Party to push his ambitious renewable energy initiative, while lining his own pockets in the process.  He holds major investments in renewable energy and is seeking an advantage for these by eliminating the non-renewable energy competitors, particularly coal. His opposition to coal-based energy ends at the U.S. border and he remains a major investor in coal for other nations.

Accompanying video.

Press release.

E&E Legal Sues EPA for Stacking ‘Independent’ Science Panel with EPA Grant Recipients; Asks Court to Dissolve EPA Panel

On May 13, 2016, E&E Legal) sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for illegal formation of a key science advisory committee. The committee at issue is the EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee Particulate Matter Review Panel for 2015-2018 (CASAC PM Panel). E&E Legal filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of its members who include the Western States Trucking Association and Dr. James Enstrom, a Research Fellow and epidemiologist retired from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Press release.

E&E Legal Releases Updated ‘Energy Poverty’ Video to Remind World Leaders Gathering at the UN on ‘International Mother Earth Day’ to Sign the Paris Treaty that ‘Climate’ Policies Contained in the Agreement Hurt and Kill the Most Vulnerable

On April 22, 2016, in a signing ceremony scheduled to coincide with the day that a 2009 UN Resolution declared as ‘International Mother Earth Day’, nearly 150 political leaders met in New York City at the United Nations to sign the Paris Climate Treaty.  The E&E Legal released an updated video to help the public understand the terrible consequences for the poor and most vulnerable of this treaty, which replaces the failed Kyoto Protocol.

Watch the video here.

Press release.

E&E Legal Releases Report: Dozens of New FOIA’d Emails Show Lobbyists Allowed by EPA to Co-write GHG Regulatory Options on Senior Official’s Yahoo Email Account

On February 22, 2016, E&E Legal released a report laying out for the first time a pattern of ex parte communications by EPA officials  gathered from Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, piecing together emails obtained by E&E Legal, the Competitive Enterprise Institute and a law student in his litigation with EPA, including many released for the first time.

Press release.

E&E Legal Releases ‘Energy Poverty’ Video in English and Spanish on Wake of U.S. Papal Visit to Educate the Public About the Devastating Truth Behind the Pope and the U.N.’s ‘Climate Change’ Policies

The September 2015 Papal addresses to Congress and the United Nations were part of a campaign promoting a political, highly ideological agenda that is yielding terribly cruel outcomes.  While advocates promote the Holy Father decrying poverty, followed by demands that we adopt certain policies, they will not give you the whole truth.  These policies demanded in the name of climate change — which policies no one claims will detectably impact the climate, and so which are now offered in the name of protecting the most vulnerable — are in fact already killing the most vulnerable, by the tens of thousands.

To help educate the public about the truth behind the rhetoric, E&E Legal released videos both in English and Spanish, documenting a fraction of the evidence of these cruel impacts from otherwise futile, political gestures.

E&E Legal Releases Report Exposing Coordination Between Governors, the Obama White House and the Tom Steyer-“Founded and Funded” Network of Advocacy Groups to Advance the “Climate” Agenda

On August 24, 2015, E&E Legal released an investigative report, Private Interests & Public Office: Coordination Between Governors, the Obama White House and the Tom Steyer-“Founded and Funded” Network of Advocacy Groups to Advance the “Climate” Agenda (and an appendix of source documents), revealing a vast, coordinated, three-track effort by public officials and private interests to promote EPA’s expansive, overreaching and economically devastating greenhouse gas rules, specifically the section 111(d) regulation to shut the nation’s fleet of existing coal-fired power plants, as well as the December Paris climate treaty President Obama is expected to sign to replace the Kyoto Protocol.

Press release.

E&E Legal Releases Report: Back to Square One: Unlawful Collusion with Green Pressure Groups Should Doom U.S. EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Regulation

On July 31, 2015, E&E Legal released an investigatory report, Back to Square One: Unlawful Collusion with Green Pressure Groups Should Doom U.S. EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Regulation and an appendix of source documents. The report, which is based on e-mails and other documents obtained under numerous Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests and litigation, details illegal activities by EPA staff, colluding with certain environmental lobbyists to draft EPA’s greenhouse gas (GHG) rules behind the scenes, outside of public view, and to the exclusion of other parties. More importantly, it clearly shows that EPA must start anew if it wishes to regulate GHGs. ( is available for use.)

Press release.

Two-minute companion video.

E&E Legal Releases Report: Big Donors…Big Conflicts: How Wealthy Donors Use the Sierra Club to Push Their Agenda

On July 9, 2015, E&E Legal released an investigatory report, Big Donors…Big Conflicts; How Wealthy Donors Use the Sierra Club to Push Their Agenda, that examines some of the biggest contributors to the Sierra Club and their self-interested motivation for donating. (Fifteen-second video intro)

In this report, E&E Legal documents similar benefits accruing to some of Sierra Club’s largest donors and, specifically, how they appear to use the Sierra Club for market manipulation. Such self-dealing by donors is prohibited by the IRS.

Press release.

E&E Legal Releases “Energy Poverty” Video in Anticipation of Papal Encyclical “Laudato Si”

On June 15, 2015, in anticipation of Pope Francis’ encyclical,Laudato Si, The Energy & Environment Legal Institute (E&E Legal) has produced a two-minute video imploring the Pope to understand that “climate change policies in the name of social justice”  are actually harming “the most vulnerable among us,” as the video explains.

Click here to view the video.

E&E Legal Releases Report on Green Groups Record-Breaking Spending on the 2014 Elections

On April 14, 2015, E&E Legal E&E Legal released an investigatory report analyzing the money green groups spent on the 2014 elections. The report details how green groups, including the Sierra Club, League of Conservation Voters, and the Environmental Defense Action Fund – to name a few – spent an unprecedented amount of money during the 2014 election cycle supporting leftwing candidates for the U.S. Senate, U.S. House, and state, and local candidates with virtually nothing to show for it once all the ballots were cast. As the report notes, “The largest and most visible groups, counting only money directly spent on electioneering, bragged about spending upwards of $85 million dollars for the midterms,” which is probably a significant underestimation when you consider other types of non-direct campaign spending such as phone banks, and get-out-the-vote efforts. $40 million of this money was a failed attempt at maintaining the Democrats majority in the U.S. Senate.

Press release.

E&E Legal Launches Sierra Club Unearthed, a Special Project to Expose How the Sierra Club’s Been Hijacked by Global Billionaires

On April 2, 2015, E&E Legal launched Sierra Club Unearthed, a special project of E&E Legal. The goal of Sierra Club Unearthed is two-fold: 1) Use investigatory research and other information to document the extent to which a small group of national hacks have hijacked the Sierra Club and have used it for their own financial and political purposes; and 2) Provide a confidential portal for local Sierra Club members to share their “horror stories” about the national Sierra Club’s activities with the goal of returning the Sierra Club to the original mission of its founder John Muir.

The Sierra Club Unearthed website documents several areas in which the national Sierra Club has sold out, including their “War on Coal,” which directly financially benefits 8 of the Sierra Club Foundation’s 18 Board of Directors due to their ownership and/or management of renewable energy companies – a segment of the market that would certainly benefit if coal’s share were diminished. Its “War on Coal” also coincided with natural gas producer Chesapeake Energy’s $26 million donation to the Sierra Club for the express purpose of forcing coal-fired electricity companies to switch to natural gas

Press release.

E&E Legal Special Report: EPA’s Clean Power Plan Is a Paper Tiger and Uses a Strategy Relying on Empty Threats Against Utilities, Governors and State Legislators

On February 2, 2015, E&E Legal released a special report, EPA’s Clean Power Plan Is a Paper Tiger and Uses a Strategy Relying on Empty Threats Against Utilities, Governors and State Legislators.

The report notes that the EPA’s war on coal is a three-pronged regulatory attack, which includes standards for new coal-fired power plants, regulations for existing plants, and standards for modified and reconstructed power plants.  Each of these proposed regulations are “open to legal attack and without question all will be litigated. The most controversial, and most open to legal challenge, however, is the Clean Power Plan, followed closely by the regulations for new power plants.”

Press release.

E&E Legal Asks FEC Chairman to Investigate Sierra Club Concerning the Group’s Latest Smear Ad in Iowa Senate Race for Potential Campaign Disclosure Law Violations

On October 2, 2014, E&E Legal sent a letter to Federal Election Commission (FEC) Chair Lee Goodman asking the FEC to investigate potential federal financial disclosure violations by the Sierra Club in the wake of their recent $1 million ad buy aimed at smearing and defeating Republican State Senator Joni Ernst in her bid for the U.S. Senate.

On September 18, 2014, the Sierra Club announced that its Super PAC, the Sierra Club Independent Action, “bought nearly $1 million worth of television airtime in Iowa, in a strong push to defeat Republican State Senator Joni Ernst.” This comes on the heals of a $1 million ad buy over the summer targeting Ernst by a coalition of leftist groups that included yet another Sierra Club entity, the Sierra Club Political Committee, the Environmental Defense Action Fund, and the League of Conservation Voters.

Press release.

Bootleggers and Baptists . . . and Hucksterism: How the Sierra Club and the Sierra Club Foundation Violate Non-Profit Law

On September 17, 2014, E&E Legal released a detailed report outlining IRS violations committed by the Sierra Club and the Sierra Club Foundation including impermissible benefit to private interests and failure to pay taxes on unrelated business income.  E&E Legal sent the report to the IRS along with a “referral,” which sought the tax agency’s careful review and investigation into these potential tax law violations.

Regarding its failure to pay taxes on unrelated business income, the Sierra Club sends its members into communities to sell the products of a selected local solar panel company in Maryland, Utah and dozens of other states in exchange for contributions to the group. In Maryland, for example, the Sierra Club makes a $750 profit from every sale and has never paid taxes on that commercial enterprise.

In terms of impermissible benefits to private interest, the Sierra Club’s use of its War on Coal not only produce profits, but apparently conspires with the companies that profit from that war. Eight of the Sierra Club Foundation’s 18 directors own or operate organizations that directly benefit from the War on Coal. These directors are the captains of the renewable energy industry. While the Sierra Club Foundation doesn’t pay these directors, their companies directly profit from the Sierra Club Foundation’s primary “program,” the War on Coal.

Press release.

Report Shows “Green Groups” Colluded with Obama White House, EPA

On September 14, 2014, E&E Legal released a report revealing and piecing together dozens of emails obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which laid out in detail EPA’s collusion with senior activists within environmentalist pressure groups, and proving the real thinking about the intent behind and impact of EPA’s “climate” regulations.  Far from the required recusing to avoid the appearance of a conflict, EPA filled its senior political ranks with green pressure group activists, continuing their life’s work and coordinating with former colleagues from their new positions in government.

Press release.

Regulatory Comment Re: EPA’s Proposed New Source Performance Standard Marred by Collusion with Sierra Club, Other “Green Groups”

On March 10, 2014, E&E Legal filed formal regulatory comments that affirmed senior officials within the Obama U.S. EPA came into the agency having predetermined the “war on coal,” despite their claims it emerged as internal deliberation and a public rule making process. Also, discovery of widespread private email accounts by senior Agency officials involved with this project, wholesale destruction of all text messages by the past two administrators, and a “naked transfer of wealth” all establish that EPA’s global warming rules lack a constitutional basis.

Press release.