by Margaret Price
The Federalist Society

The twenty Democratic AGs’ (“Green 20”) concerted investigation against ExxonMobil (Exxon) and organizations deemed “climate change deniers” represents a threat to core constitutional commands of free speech, limited and constitutional government and the rule of law. This latest incarnation of regulation by litigation which seeks to punish climate change wrongthink has crossed a line that lies at the core of the First Amendment—a government imposing its orthodoxy upon its citizens. Declaring the need for “transformational” action on climate change as a settled question, Virgin Islands’ AG, Claude Earl Walker, announced, “We cannot continue to rely on fossil fuel. Vice President Gore has made that clear.” (Glad that’s all settled!)…

Emails recently obtained by Energy & Environment Legal Institute (E&E Legal) show that attorney Matt Pawa, whose firm, like Cohen Milstein, represents state AGs in pay-to-play contingency fee climate change and energy lawsuits that have come under criticism, and Peter Frumhoff with the Union of Concerned Scientists were invited to secretly brief the state AGs before the March 29 press conference with Al Gore, to arm the AGs with arguments on “the imperative of taking action now” on “climate change litigation.” The emails include a disturbing communication in which NY AG Schneiderman’s office urged the climate activists with whom they were working to deceive the press about their involvement: Specifically, Pawa emailed Lem Srolovic, chief of the NY AG’s Environmental Protection Bureau and Scot Kline, a VT Assistant AG, expressing concern about how to respond to an inquiry from a Wall Street Journal reporter: “What should I say if she asks if I attended?” Srolovic replied “My ask is if you speak to the reporter, to not confirm that you attended or otherwise discuss the event.”

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