Private interests determining public policy while circumventing voters

I knew of this but hadn't thought about it in a good while. From State AGs’ Climate Cover-up: What’s behind third-party funding of liberal state attorneys general? by The Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal.

I objected to this lawfare tactic when it was first deployed, what, ten or fifteen years ago. It was an attempt to hijack the legislative process. Because Climate Alarmists were having no success in actually frightening enough citizens, they were failing to make any legislative progress. As a recourse, the Attorney General's of a handful of states sought to sue oil companies for climate change. That isn't exactly how they positioned it but it was the substance. Some of the AGs have fallen by the wayside but cases from New York and some others are winding their way through the courts to their ultimate doom.

The editorial is a bit of an update but it also focuses on a feature I had overlooked.

Readers may recall a curious arrangement in which NYU Law School’s State Energy and Environmental Impact Center (SEEIC) finances the salaries and benefits of legal fellows in the New York Attorney General’s office as “special assistant attorneys general.” The program began in 2017 and is bankrolled by Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Funding is only available to state AGs committed to “advancing progressive clean energy, climate change, and environmental legal positions,” according to the group’s August 2017 email to numerous AGs obtained by Chris Horner, a former fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. In other words, an outside group is funding legal services for AGs who pursue the group’s political priorities.

The SEEIC says the fellows’ work is directed by AGs and not the SEEIC, but questions about the group’s influence on law enforcement are being raised in court. One of the New York AG fellows, Matthew Eisenson, signed the state’s October suit against Exxon Mobil , which alleged the company misled investors about the risks of climate-change regulations to its business.

Exxon has produced millions of pages of documents since former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman began investigating the company in 2015 and now wants more information regarding the office’s communications with outside groups. Yet AG Letitia James is dodging transparency regarding her office’s SEEIC relationship.

Exxon alleges that the office’s “acceptance of fellows” from SEEIC “generates a conflict of interest," and that New York’s “investigation of, and enforcement action against, ExxonMobil are driven by improper motives,” according to a brief Exxon filed last month. The AG is challenging Exxon’s discovery requests, and a hearing is scheduled for June 12.

This combines several burrs under the saddle.

The use of lawfare to circumvent citizen will.

The pursuit of an anti-science position in the form of AGW.

The delegation of policy by legislatures to courts and independent agencies without oversight or accountability.

The increasing role of NGOs in determining public policy instead of the will of the people.

The displacement of will of the people by the Mandarin Class.

In this particular case, it is the use of public money via the AG PLUS public money from state run institutions like NYU Law School (private but as a research institute, substantially dependent on public largesse) PLUS money from foundations like Bloomberg Philanthropies which is so egregious.

There is rampant unaccountability in this cess pool of sloshing money which has strings attached. This is mixing policy and law and institutional authority and private interests without the oversight or control by the people's representatives. This can't help but appear to be deep Mandarin Class corruption and is, I think, an example of the deep democracy/accountability deficit which is causing voters everywhere to turn on the Mandarin Class everywhere.