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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/bannons-oligarch-cage-match-worries-gop</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2016/05/climate-change-attorneys-general/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.nationalreview.com/2016/05/climate-change-attorneys-general/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">POLITICS & POLICY</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The Climate-Change Gang</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By SCOTT PRUITT</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;& LUTHER STRANGE</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>May 17, 2016&nbsp;</b></font></div><div>
</div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The Obama administration lawlessly rewards its supporters and punishes its enemies.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The United States was born out of a revolution against, in the words of the Declaration of Independence, an “arbitrary government” that&nbsp;<b>put men on trial “for pretended offences”&nbsp;</b>and “abolish[ed] the Free System of English laws.”&nbsp;<b>Brave men and women stood up to that oppressive government, and this, the greatest democracy of them all, one that is governed by the rule of law and not by men, is the product.</b></font></div><div>
</div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Some of our states have forgotten this founding principle and are acting less like Jefferson and Adams and more like George III. A group of Democratic attorneys general has announced it intends to criminally investigate oil and gas companies that have disputed the science behind man-made global warming. Backed by<b>&nbsp;green-energy interests and environmentalist lobbying groups</b>, the coalition has promised to&nbsp;<b>use intrusive investigations, costly litigation, and criminal prosecutions to silence critics of its climate-change agenda. Pretended offenses, indeed.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We won’t be joining this coalition, and we hope that those attorneys general who have joined will disavow it.&nbsp;<b>Healthy debate is the lifeblood of American democracy, and global warming has inspired one of the major policy debates of our time<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">. That debate is far from settled.</span></b>&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Scientists continue to disagree about the degree and extent of global warming and its connection to the actions of mankind. That debate should be encouraged — in classrooms, public forums, and the halls of Congress. It should not be silenced with threats of prosecution. Dissent is not a crime.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">RELATED: Obama’s Latest Executive Action: Spend Hundreds of Billions to Not Help the Environment]</font></div><div>
</div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Sadly, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen this tactic of advancing the climate-change agenda by any means necessary. President Obama’s Clean Power Plan is a particularly noteworthy example. This EPA regulation, one of the most ambitious ever proposed, will shutter coal-fired power plants, significantly increase the price of electricity for American consumers, and e<b>nact by executive fiat the very same cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions that Congress has rejected.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The Clean Power Plan was promulgated without any consultation with Congress.&nbsp;</b>No bills were debated, no votes were taken, and the representatives of the American people had no opportunity to object or offer their own suggestions. The checks and balances built into our system of government were simply ignored as inconvenient impediments to the president’s agenda.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Clean Power Plan was promulgated without any consultation with Congress. No bills were debated, no votes were taken.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>But in our states,&nbsp;we believe in and govern with respect for the rule of law,&nbsp;rather than by ambition to use the power of our governments to stifle political opponents.</b></span>&nbsp;That is why we are part of a very different kind of coalition, a coalition of 29 states seeking to vindicate the rule of law by challenging the legality of the Clean Power Plan in our courts. The 29 states and state attorneys general who are part of this&nbsp;<b>effort respect our proper role, which is neither to pick winners and losers in the energy sector&nbsp;</b>nor to silence those with whom we disagree.&nbsp;<b>Rather, our job is to hold the EPA accountable&nbsp;</b>to the laws that created it and to fulfill our statutory duties to ensure that consumers in our states have access to reliable, affordable energy. We will continue to pursue those goals and to present our arguments in the courts and in the public square, treating our opponents with the respect they deserve.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">RELATED: Obama’s ‘Clean Power Plan’ Punishes Workers, Consumers, and States That Voted for Romney]</font></div><div>
</div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s unfortunate that this respect is not always returned. In their press conference, the group of state attorneys general called themselves an “unprecedented coalition.” On this point, they are correct<b>. Rarely in our nation’s history has the police power of the state been so eagerly used to intimidate citizens [corporations?] into silence</b>.&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But even more troubling are internal e-mails and other documents that indicate that this coercion was orchestrated not by the attorneys general themselves, but by&nbsp;<b>green-energy advocacy groups using these officials as puppets to further their extreme agendas.</b></span>&nbsp;<b>This should frighten us all.&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Outside groups&nbsp;</span>should not be able to use the power of the government as a sword to go after their political opponents.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We do not doubt the sincerity of the beliefs of our fellow attorneys general about climate change and the role human activity plays in it. [why/how could you? thy can and shd doubt yours?] But we call upon them to press those&nbsp;<b>beliefs through debate [like in a courtroom?]&nbsp;</b>, not through&nbsp;<b>governmental intimidation of those who disagree with them. Few things could be more un-American.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">— Scott Pruitt is the attorney general of Oklahoma. Luther Strange is the attorney general of Alabama.</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">feb 2018</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/elliott-negin/exxonmobils-climate-disinformation-campaign-is-still-alive-and-well" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://blog.ucsusa.org/elliott-negin/exxonmobils-climate-disinformation-campaign-is-still-alive-and-well</a>/</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In a recent&nbsp;<a href="https://energyfactor.exxonmobil.com/perspectives/better-approach-climate-change/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; outline: none; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 174, 235); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: inherit;">blog post</a>,&nbsp;<b>ExxonMobil executive Suzanne McCarron&nbsp;</b>reiterated her company’s claim that it fully accepts the reality of climate change and that it wants to do something about it....“I want to use this opportunity to be 100 percent clear about where we stand on climate change,” she wrote. “We believe the risk of climate change is real and we are committed to being part of the solution. So why is the company still a part of—in fact, a major part of—the problem?An exchange between Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt during a recent&nbsp;<a href="https://www.epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2018/1/oversight-hearing-to-receive-testimony-from-environmental-protection-agency-administrator-scott-pruitt" oversight="oversight" hearing="hearing" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">&nbsp;is a case in point, providing a window into how ExxonMobil’s undue influence continues to block climate action.</a></font><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px auto 1.6rem; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; padding: 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.001em; max-width: 32rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="font-weight: inherit;">During the January 30 hearing, which was held by the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, Sen. Cory Booker inadvertently provoked Inhofe by raising the issue of&nbsp;</span><b>environmental justice</b></span><b>.&nbsp;</b><span style="font-weight: inherit;">The New Jersey Democrat cited the threat climate change-induced flooding poses to three dozen Superfund sites in his state and asked Pruitt if he was “taking into account the environmental burdens disproportionately impacting communities of color, indigenous communities and low-income communities.”</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px auto 1.6rem; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; padding: 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.001em; max-width: 32rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;">Inhofe seized the opportunity to contradict Booker, claiming that minority and low-income communities are disproportionately&nbsp;</span><span style="border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: inherit;"><b>harmed</b></span><span style="font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;">&nbsp;by environmental protections, specifically citing the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan, which would have dramatically reduced carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants if Pruitt hadn’t repealed it.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px auto 1.6rem; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; padding: 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.001em; max-width: 32rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="font-weight: inherit;">Booker, Inhofe said, was implying that Pruitt was trying to “punish” vulnerable Americans. “I wanted to just remind you,” Inhofe told the committee, “that we had a guy I remember so well,&nbsp;</span><b>Harry Alford. He was the president of the National Black Chamber of Commerce</b><span style="font-weight: inherit;">.</span></span><span style="font-weight: inherit;">&nbsp;He provided some of the most powerful testimony that I have ever heard when it comes to the effects of the Clean Power Plan and some of the other regulations … on black and Hispanic poverty, including job losses and increased energy costs.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px auto 1.6rem; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; padding: 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.001em; max-width: 32rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“[Alford] was very emphatic as to who was paying the price on these,” the Oklahoma Republican continued, “and I think sometimes that the previous administration forgot that there are already people out there who are paying all they can pay just to try to eat and keep their house warm.”</font></p><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.23077; margin: 1rem auto 1.6rem; padding: 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.002em; max-width: 32rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ExxonMobil’s Echo Chamber</font></h3><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px auto 1.6rem; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; padding: 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.001em; max-width: 32rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Inhofe’s source for his assertion? A discredited, ExxonMobil-funded study by an Exxon-funded advocacy group that was based on discredited studies by other ExxonMobil-funded organizations.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px auto 1.6rem; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; padding: 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.001em; max-width: 32rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Inhofe rested his argument on previous congressional testimony by Harry Alford, president of the National Black Chamber of Commerce (NBCC), a shoestring, mom-and-pop operation that is unapologetic about taking fossil fuel industry money. “Of course we do and it is only natural,” Alford&nbsp;<a href="http://www.nationalbcc.org/news/beyond-the-rhetoric/2428-fossil-fuels-and-african-americans-it-s-family" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; outline: none; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 174, 235); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: inherit;">wrote</a>&nbsp;on NBCC’s website. “The legacy of Blacks in this nation has been tied to the miraculous history of fossil fuel…. [F]ossil fuels have been our economic friend.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px auto 1.6rem; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; padding: 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.001em; max-width: 32rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">One of NBCC’s closest economic friends is ExxonMobil, which has donated more than $1.14 million to the group since 2001.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px auto 1.6rem; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; padding: 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.001em; max-width: 32rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What did the company get for that money?</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px auto 1.6rem; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; padding: 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.001em; max-width: 32rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In 2015, NBCC commissioned a report that&nbsp;<a href="http://www.nationalbcc.org/news/latest-news/2426-epa-rule-impoverishes-minorities" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; outline: none; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 174, 235); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: inherit;">claimed</a>&nbsp;the Clean Power Plan would “inflict severe and disproportionate economic burdens on poor families, especially minorities.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px auto 1.6rem; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; padding: 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.001em; max-width: 32rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In fact, unchecked climate change would more than likely&nbsp;<a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/climate-change-hits-poor-hardest/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; outline: none; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 174, 235); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: inherit;">hurt</a>&nbsp;those communities most, and investments in energy efficiency under the plan would ultimately&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/global-warming/reduce-emissions/how-much-will-clean-power-plan-cost?ga=2.50634219.339710596.1518014951-803850457.1367700932#bf-toc-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; outline: none; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 174, 235); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: inherit;">lower</a>&nbsp;electricity bills across the country.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px auto 1.6rem; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; padding: 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.001em; max-width: 32rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); font-weight: inherit;">How did NBCC arrive at its upside-down assessment? The Union of Concerned Scientists took a&nbsp;</span><a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/new-flawed-study-of-the-clean-power-plan-how-the-misi-study-gets-it-so-wrong-759" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 174, 235); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: inherit;">close look</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); font-weight: inherit;">&nbsp;at the report and found it was based on several flawed fossil fuel industry-friendly studies</span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">. Two of those bogus studies were produced by ExxonMobil grantees</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); font-weight: inherit;">: the&nbsp;</span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Heritage Foundation,</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); font-weight: inherit;">&nbsp;which received $340,000 from ExxonMobil between 2007 and 2013, and the&nbsp;</span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which received $3 million between 2014 and 2016.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px auto 1.6rem; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; padding: 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.001em; max-width: 32rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); font-weight: inherit;">The Chamber study, which came out just days before the EPA released a draft of the Clean Power Plan, was debunked not only by the&nbsp;</span><a href="https://blog.epa.gov/blog/2014/05/setting-the-record-straight-on-the-chamber-of-commerces-report/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 174, 235); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: inherit;">EPA</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); font-weight: inherit;">, but also by&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2014/may/30/its-epa-vs-us-chamber-commerce-over-climate-change/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 174, 235); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: inherit;"><em style="border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: inherit;">PolitiFact.com</em></a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); font-weight: inherit;">&nbsp;and&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2014/06/03/gop-lawmakers-rush-to-cite-study-to-discredit-new-epa-rule-but-study-assumed-epa-rule-would-be-tougher/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 174, 235); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: inherit;"><em style="border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: inherit;">The Washington Post</em></a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); font-weight: inherit;">. Among its many faults, the&nbsp;</span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Chamber study—which was co-sponsored by the American Petroleum Institute—</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); font-weight: inherit;">wildly inflated the cost of the plan and failed to consider the benefits of cutting carbon emissions.</span></font></p><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.23077; margin: 1rem auto 1.6rem; padding: 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.002em; max-width: 32rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ExxonMobil Spreads its Money Around</font></h3><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px auto 1.6rem; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; padding: 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.001em; max-width: 32rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But there’s more than just the fact that ExxonMobil financed deliberately flawed studies to try to derail the Clean Power Plan. The company also is a major supporter of a number of Senate EPW Committee members, including Inhofe, who are adamant&nbsp;<a href="https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/pg5zqg/a-guide-to-the-climate-change-deniers-in-congress" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; outline: none; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 174, 235); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: inherit;">climate science deniers</a></span>.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px auto 1.6rem; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; padding: 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.001em; max-width: 32rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Inhofe has deep ties to the oil and gas industry, which has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/summary?cid=N00005582&cycle=CAREER" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 174, 235); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: inherit;">donated</a>&nbsp;$1.85 million to his campaign war chest over his long career in Congress, more than twice than any other industry.&nbsp;</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="font-weight: inherit;">Three oil and gas companies are among the senator’s&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/summary?cid=N00005582&cycle=CAREER" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; outline: none; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 174, 235); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: inherit;">top 10</a><span style="font-weight: inherit;">&nbsp;corporate contributors: Koch Industries, Devon Energy and …</span><b>&nbsp;ExxonMobil.</b></span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px auto 1.6rem; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; padding: 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.001em; max-width: 32rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Six of the other 10 Republicans on the EPW Committee also are on ExxonMobil’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=d000000129" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; outline: none; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 174, 235); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: inherit;">donation list</a>, including Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the current committee chairman. Roughly half of the $119,500 ExxonMobil contributed to the seven senators over the last decade went to Barrasso and Inhofe, the committee’s previous chairman.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px auto 1.6rem; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; padding: 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.001em; max-width: 32rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); font-weight: inherit;">Then there’s ExxonMobil’s link to&nbsp;</span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Pruitt, Oklahoma’s attorney general before President Trump tapped him to run the EPA</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); font-weight: inherit;">. From 2012 through 2013, he chaired the Republican Attorneys General Association&nbsp;</span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">(RAGA)&nbsp;</b><span style="font-weight: inherit;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">and afterward served on the organization’s executive committee.&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">From 2014 through 2016, ExxonMobil&nbsp;</span></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/527s/527cmtedetail_donors.php?url=527cmtedetail_donors.php%3Fcycle%3D2014%26ein%3D464501717&cname=Exxon+Mobil&ein=464501717&cycle=2014" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; outline: none; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 174, 235); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: inherit;">gave</a><span style="font-weight: inherit;">&nbsp;RAGA $160,000 in three annual installments.</span></span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px auto 1.6rem; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; padding: 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.001em; max-width: 32rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-style: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); font-weight: inherit;">Just a few weeks after the company made its 2016 donation of $50,000,</span><b style="font-style: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;Pruitt and then-RAGA Chairman </b><b style="font-style: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">Luther Strange,</b><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="font-style: inherit;"> at the time Alabama’s attorney general, co-authored a&nbsp;</span><span style="border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: inherit;">National Review</span>&nbsp;<a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/435470/climate-change-attorneys-general" style="font-style: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 174, 235); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: inherit;">column</a><span style="font-style: inherit;">&nbsp;attacking a&nbsp;</span><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/30032016/climate-change-fraud-investigation-exxon-eric-shneiderman-18-attorneys-general" style="font-style: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 174, 235); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: inherit;">coalition of state attorneys general</a><span style="font-style: inherit;">&nbsp;investigating ExxonMobil and other fossil fuel companies for misleading investors&nbsp;</span></b><span style="font-style: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); font-weight: inherit;">and the general public about climate change. Parroting ExxonMobil’s&nbsp;</span><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/13012018/exxon-climate-change-investor-fraud-investigations-lawsuit-free-speech-new-york" style="font-style: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; outline: none; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 174, 235); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: inherit;">argument</a><span style="font-style: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: inherit;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">, Pruitt and Strange charged that the coalition was&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">violating the company’s first amendment right to free speech.</span></span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px auto 1.6rem; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; padding: 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.001em; max-width: 32rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“The debate” over climate change, they wrote “is far from settled.</b><span style="font-weight: inherit;">&nbsp;Scientists continue to disagree about the degree and extent of global warming and its connection to the actions of mankind. That debate should be encouraged — in classrooms, public forums, and the halls of Congress. It should not be silenced with threats of prosecution. Dissent is not a crime.”</span></font></p><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.23077; margin: 1rem auto 1.6rem; padding: 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.002em; max-width: 32rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Inhofe Upstaged</font></h3><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px auto 1.6rem; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; padding: 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.001em; max-width: 32rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: inherit;">In this case, Inhofe’s counterfactual comment didn’t make it into the ensuing media coverage. Along with nearly everything else that was said during the two-and-a-half hour marathon,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="font-weight: inherit;">&nbsp;it was eclipsed by a bombshell dropped by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse. The Rhode Island Democrat revealed that during a&nbsp;</span><b>February 2016&nbsp;<a href="http://documentedinvestigations.org/2018/01/30/scott-pruitt-trump-audio/" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 174, 235); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: inherit;">radio interview</a>, Pruitt said Trump would be “more abusive to the Constitution than Barack Obama, and that’s saying a lot.”</b><span style="font-weight: inherit;">&nbsp;Whitehouse read Pruitt’s remark aloud and asked him if he recalled making it.</span></span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px auto 1.6rem; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; padding: 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.001em; max-width: 32rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“I don’t,” Pruitt&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/30/politics/pruitt-trump-2016-remarks-abusive-constitution/index.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; outline: none; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 174, 235); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: inherit;">responded</a>, “and I don’t echo that today at all.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px auto 1.6rem; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; padding: 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.001em; max-width: 32rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I guess not,” Whitehouse replied.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px auto 1.6rem; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; padding: 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.001em; max-width: 32rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: inherit;">Not surprisingly, that embarrassing nugget was the story. There was no way that Inhofe’s rambling, ExxonMobil-sponsored falsehood could compete in the media with red meat like that. But overshadowed or not, Inhofe provided yet another incontrovertible piece of evidence that—</span><b>despite ExxonMobil’s statements to the contrary—the company is still very much engaged behind the scenes in trying to stymie any government attempt to seriously address climate change.</b></font></p></div><footer class="article-footer wrapper" style="border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit; position: relative; width: 640px; max-width: 32rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="taxonomy" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 4rem; padding: 0px; box-sizing: inherit;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; padding: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.001em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: inherit;">Posted in:</span>&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/category/climate-change/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; outline: none; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 174, 235); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: inherit;">Climate Change</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/category/energy/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; outline: none; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 174, 235); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: inherit;">Energy</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/category/science-and-democracy/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; outline: none; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 174, 235); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: inherit;">Science and Democracy</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/category/scientific-integrity/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; outline: none; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 174, 235); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: inherit;">Scientific Integrity</a></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; padding: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.001em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: inherit;">Tags:&nbsp;</span><a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/tag/disinformation/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; outline: none; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 174, 235); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: inherit;">disinformation</a></font></p></div></footer><p style="margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ref 2x?</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/30032016/climate-change-fraud-investigation-exxon-eric-shneiderman-18-attorneys-general/">https://insideclimatenews.org/news/3003<b>2016/</b>climate-change-fraud-investigation-exxon-eric-shneiderman-18-attorneys-general/</a></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">david h &</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">a<span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);">new coalition of state attorneys general gave vocal notice to fossil fuel companies on Tuesday that obfuscating the realities of climate change has put ExxonMobil and its peers under the searchlight of a broadening multistate investigation.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Announcing an alliance of top state law enforcement officers to press for urgent climate action on multiple legal fronts, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman was joined by six of his counterparts, their ranks bolstered by aides from nine additional states and the District of Columbia. The group met in New York to plan strategies and share information.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">one after another, the top legal officials from Vermont, Virginia, Massachusetts, Maryland, Connecticut and the Virgin Islands vowed to hold fossil fuel companies accountable if their words and deeds on climate change had crossed into illegality.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“The First Amendment, ladies and gentlemen, does not give you the right to commit fraud,” said Schneiderman, </b>who in November&nbsp;<a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/05112015/new-york-attorney-general-eric-schneiderman-subpoena-Exxon-climate-documents" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">issued a subpoena to ExxonMobil</a>&nbsp;under the state’s far-reaching securities and consumer protection statutes.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Every attorney general does work on fraud cases, and we are pursuing this as we would any other fraud matter. You have to tell the truth, you can’t make misrepresentations of the kinds we’ve seen here,” he said on Tuesday.&nbsp;“The scope of the problem we are facing, the size of the corporate entities and their alliances, the trade associations and other groups, is massive and it requires a multistate effort.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Attorney General Maura Healey of Massachusetts explicitly disclosed that she, too, has opened an investigation into ExxonMobil’s actions and statements involving climate change.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"> Attorney General Claude Walker of the Virgin Islands said he had launched a fossil fuel investigation as</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">well. Schneiderman later suggested that it involved Exxon, and also said that California has undertaken a probe of Exxon, although that state’s attorney general, Kamala Harris, was represented by staff.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">All of those attorneys general are Democrats, and as the group stood at a podium bearing the words “AGs United for Clean Power” they made clear that their agenda also extended to supporting the centerpiece of President Obama’s climate policies, the Clean Power Plan. The group wrote a brief defending those regulations, which have been&nbsp;<a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/10022016/supreme-courts-order-block-clean-power-plan-has-implications-far-beyond-us" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">put on hold by the Supreme Court pending litigation</a>&nbsp;at a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Everyone from President Obama on down is under a relentless assault from well-funded, highly aggressive and morally vacant forces that are trying to block every step by the federal government to take meaningful action,” Schneiderman said.&nbsp;“So today we are sending a message that at least some of us, actually a lot of us, in state government are prepared to step into this battle with an unprecedented level of commitment and coordination.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“If there are companies—whether utilities or fossil fuel companies—committing fraud in an effort to maximize their short-term profit at the expense of the people we represent,” he continued, “we want to find out about it and want to expose it and we want to pursue them to the fullest extent of the law, prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Schneiderman has&nbsp;<a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/05112015/new-york-attorney-general-eric-schneiderman-subpoena-Exxon-climate-documents" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">demanded that Exxon turn over documents on climate science research</a>&nbsp;and communications covering a span of almost four decades. He acted after&nbsp;<a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/content/Exxon-The-Road-Not-Taken" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">InsideClimate News</a>&nbsp;and the Los Angeles Times disclosed decades-old documents describing Exxon’s early understanding of the emerging science of climate change.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><b>“The investigations targeting our company threaten to have a chilling effect on private sector research,”</b></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> Exxon’s vice president of public and government affairs, Suzanne McCarron</span><span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);">, said in&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.exxonmobilperspectives.com/2016/03/29/exxonmobil-responds-to-state-ags/?sf23338439=1" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">a lengthy statement on its websit</a><a href="http://www.exxonmobilperspectives.com/2016/03/29/exxonmobil-responds-to-state-ags/?sf23338439=1" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">e</a><span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);">. The company also responded on Twitter, saying the allegations of climate deceit are “</span><a href="https://twitter.com/exxonmobil/status/714976457102110721" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">preposterous</a><span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);">” and “</span><a href="https://twitter.com/exxonmobil/status/714915055066812416" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">politically motivated and baseless</a><span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);">,” and that it is assessing its legal options.</span></font></p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 24px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 48px; line-height: 1.38; quotes: " grid-column="grid-column" span="span" word-break="word-break" break-word="break-word" z-index="z-index" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><p dir="ltr" lang="en" style="box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">.<a href="https://twitter.com/exxonmobil" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">@exxonmobil</a>&nbsp;is assessing all legal options re: false claims by state AGs&nbsp;<a href="https://t.co/xNqzTI7CmH" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">https://t.co/xNqzTI7CmH</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Exxonknew?src=hash" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">#Exxonknew</a></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">— ExxonMobil (@exxonmobil)&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/exxonmobil/status/714935200980066305" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">March 29, 2016</a></font></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The attorneys general were joined by former vice president Al Gore, </b>who predicted that the formation of their alliance would be a turning point.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We cannot continue to allow the fossil fuel industry or any industry to treat our atmosphere like an open sewer or mislead the public about the impact they have on the health of our people and the health of our planet,” Gore said.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Those who are using unfair and illegal means to try to prevent the change are likely now, finally, at long last, to be held to account,” he said.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gore compared the activities of Exxon to the tobacco industry in the 1990s, conduct that also faced a legal onslaught sparked by state attorneys general.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s a similarity that Gore said “may well hold up rather precisely.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gore and Schneiderman called it unconscionable that the fossil fuel industry has spent millions of dollars on polished public relations campaigns to muddle the truth, employing legions of lobbyists to stymie regulation and financing organizations devoted to discrediting prevailing climate science.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For all the saber-rattling, the attorneys general did not describe any specifics of their investigations. Schneiderman noted that each state’s laws and powers are different, and said that law enforcement officials preferred not to show their hands, at least for now.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Nor was there any sign of federal participation in the alliance.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Demands for a federal investigation of Exxon have come from federal and state lawmakers, the Democratic presidential candidates, environmentalists and climate scientists. So far, the U. S. Department of Justice has&nbsp;<a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/02032016/justice-department-refers-exxon-investigation-request-fbi-climate-change-research-denial" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">asked the FBI</a>&nbsp;to evaluate whether the company’s actions might justify legal action under RICO, the federal Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law, which is aimed at illegal conspiracies.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In his remarks, Gore praised InsideClimate News and cited the L.A. Times and the Columbia School of Journalism for their investigative reporting that, after independent investigations, reached similar conclusions about Exxon’s role in climate research and its attempts to undermine the consensus on climate science.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The facts that were publicly presented in those series of articles that I have mentioned are extremely troubling,” Gore said.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Schneiderman said he was not surprised that Exxon and the fossil fuel industry would fight back.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“It’s too early to know what we’re going to find with Exxon, but we intend to work as aggressively as possible, but also as carefully as possible,” he said.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We’re very aware of the fact that everything we do here is going to be subject to attack by folks who have a huge financial interest in discrediting us,” he said. “So we’re going to be aggressive and creative but we’re also going to be as careful and meticulous and deliberate as we can.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">All of the attorneys general talked about the impact of climate change on their states, including flooding, severe weather and sea level rise. Climate change is already responsible for significant and worsening damages, they said.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Our natural resources are the lifeblood of our state’s economy and our quality of life,” said Attorney General Janet Mills of Maine, who was not at the podium but issued a supportive statement.&nbsp; “Global climate change demands immediate action and I am committed to using the authority of my office to address the problem in a meaningful way.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The speakers faulted partisan politics in Washington for slowing efforts to fight global warming and for allowing the fossil fuel industry almost free rein to deceive the public about the harm of global warming.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We can stand up and take action where others will not,” said Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The full press conference is here:...</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/06/exxon-ken-paxton-first-amendment/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Does Exxon Mobil have a constitutional right to sow doubt about climate science? That’s the subject of a high-stakes legal battle playing out between dozens of state attorneys general, members of Congress, corporate executives, and activists.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Last fall, investigations by Inside Climate News and the Los Angeles Times revealed that the oil giant has decades of internal documents showing that its own scientists and executives knew fossil fuels contributed to climate change. Publicly, the company argued that the threats posed by global warming were far from certain, presumably as part of an effort to fight off regulation[doc]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...March 2000 Exxon Mobil ad about climate science. (Click here for a larger image.) Greenpeace</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The revelations have sparked a barrage of legal actions. The attorney generals of Massachusetts, California, and New York launched investigations of Exxon, while Democratic AGs from other states have expressed their support. Some have drawn parallels to the tobacco industry’s deception on the dangers of smoking. Exxon has countered that the investigations are unconstitutional and has filed motions asking courts to block the subpoenas. “This…is about freedom of political speech,” the company recently argued in the Massachusetts case.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In March, US Virgin Islands Attorney General Claude Walker served the company with a subpoena seeking records that he claimed might prove that Exxon had defrauded consumers and the government by “misrepresenting its knowledge” that its fossil fuels contribute to climate change. Walker specifically pointed to a state racketeering statute that prohibits obtaining money by false pretenses. He demanded any documents detailing Exxon’s knowledge of climate change and its strategies to address it, including research studies, publications, statements, and communications with outside groups. Exxon responded by filing a lawsuit against Walker to block the subpoena. Exxon prevailed on Wednesday, when Walker agreed to withdraw the subpoena.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Exxon received some unusual assistance in its victory in the Virgin Islands case. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a tea-party-aligned Republican, went so far as to formally intervene</b>—that is, he asked the court to allow the state of Texas to become a party to the case. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Exxon, he wrote, had a First Amendment right to withhold the documents Walker was seeking. The brief was also signed by Alabama Attorney<b> General Luther Strange</b> (R). (Paxton and Strange also objected to Walker’s use of a private law firm to help conduct the investigation.)</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a press conference in May, Paxton had called Walker’s investigation “a fishing expedition of the worst kind” and said it represented “an effort to punish Exxon for daring to hold opinions on climate change that differ from theirs.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“This is about the criminalization of speech and the criminalization of thought,” he said.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Two days later, Republican members of the House Science Committee sent letters to Walker and 16 Democratic attorneys general requesting documents related to the various Exxon investigations. They followed up with additional letters in June.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2012? pryor? luther?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But it was over climate change that Cuccinelli would make his greatest mark.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He put Virginia out in front—along with Texas and Alabama—as one of the first states to sue the Obama administration over the Environmental Protection Agency's endangerment finding on greenhouse gases.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/25/luther-strange-alabama-washington-agency-423408</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Strange makes play to return to D.C.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The former Alabama senator is assessing whether he can land a federal agency job, people familiar with his plans say...Strange, who had been appointed to the seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions but was defeated by Roy Moore in the Republican primary in September, has been on the hunt for a job in Washington over the past few weeks, according to three people familiar with his plans. ...He’s been sounding out professional contacts and weighing whether he can get a job at a federal agency or set up his own consulting shop. Those close to him say he’s increasingly likely to land at a law firm, where he’ll split his time between Alabama and D.C.Strange has been interviewing with several firms in Washington over the past couple of weeks, including Venable, according to two people familiar with the issue.While he is not expected to land a job in the administration in the near future, some White House aides have nonetheless been eyeing him for a position, believing that, as a former senator and former Alabama attorney general, he’d have little difficulty getting confirmed."Somebody like Luther Strange, with all of his years of experience and a little bit of experience in the Senate — and somebody who frankly has been extremely loyal to the Trump agenda for the entirety of histime in the Senate — he is exactly the kind of person you would be looking to recruit for an executive branch position,” said Republican strategist Scott Jennings, who was part of the political personnel process as special assistant to President George W. Bush..President Donald Trump endorsed Strange in the Alabama primary against the advice of his former chief strategist, Steve Bannon. As it became clear that Strange would lose to Moore, Trump from the candidate. And after Strange lost, a furious Trump deleted his previous tweets backing StrangeBut in the end, Moore went on to lose December’s special election to Democrat Doug Jones, prompting Trump to defend his original decision to back Strange.">“The reason I originally endorsed Luther Strange (and his numbers went up mightily), is that I said Roy Moore will not be able to win the General Election,” Trump wrote on Twitter at the time. “I was right! Roy worked hard but the deck was stacked against him!”[pedophile]Strange still has strong relationships with people in the White House, particularly outgoing deputy chief of staff Rick Dearborn and director of White House messaging strategy Cliff Sims, both of whom have deep ties to Alabama, as well as White House counsel Don McGahn. He is also close to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, who, like Strange, is a former state attorney general. [RAGA?] Strange was at the White House last month, according to a person who saw him there.&nbsp; It’s unclear what, if any, position Strange might eventually get in the administration, but lobbyists and some in the White House have long been buzzing about the possibility that he could be nominated to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.Strange was mentioned on short lists for the agency job after Richard Cordray, a Democrat, left the organization to run for governor of Ohio. Mick Mulvaney, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, took the helm of the consumer watchdog agency in an acting capacity last year. But Republicans close to Strange suspect that when Mulvaney leaves the post, possibly in the event that he is picked to replace John Kelly as White House chief of staff, Strange will again be in the running for the job.In addition to CFPB director, Strange has been talked about as a possible head of the Export-Import Bank. Strange’s former chief of staff is now a senior aide at the bank. But people close to Strange have cautioned him against accepting that job because senators are deeply divided over the future of the agency and could block any White House nominee to it as a result.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A White House spokeswoman declined to comment, adding, “We have no personnel announcements.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Meanwhile, Strange has also stayed close to friends at the Republican Attorneys General Association, which he used to lead, and was expected to attend the group’s 2018 winter national meeting in Washington on Sunday and Monday....Donald Trump&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Donald Trump 2020Alabama Mick Mulvaney Roy Moore Don McGahn Stephen BannonScott Pruitt Luther Strange Rick Dearborn</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">bonner cohen bs</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://news.heartland.org/newspaper-article/2016/05/18/green-activists-and-state-ags-collude-against-climate-dissenters</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/conservative-groups-pour-money-into-races-for-state-attorneys-general/2016/09/23/7a57030c-7e86-11e6-8d13-d7c704ef9fd9_story.html?utm_term=.c83a00e2b380</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Republican state attorneys general have attacked Democratic AGs over an investigation into whether ExxonMobil knew about the threat of climate change as early as the 1970s and whether the oil giant violated securities law by misleading the public and investors about the potential consequences.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The New York and Massachusetts attorneys general have issued broad subpoenas in the matter, but Exxon, which says it has already provided New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman about 1 million documents, has complained that Schneiderman is violating the company’s freedom of speech.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Republicans have accused Schneiderman of colluding with environmental groups and liberal nonprofits to come up with a plan to use the same strategy against the oil industry that was used against the tobacco industry.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The flap was at the top of the agenda when RAGA held its summer meeting at the Broadmoor hotel in Colorado Springs on July 11. The first panel, attended by hundreds of corporate executives, was titled “Climate Change Debate — How Speech Is Being Stifled.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The meeting did not include any scientific experts on climate change. Instead the panel included a longtime denier of climate change, Myron Ebell of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and Chet M. Thompson, president of the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, whose plants are major emitters of greenhouse gases. The AFPM gave RAGA $50,900 last year and has given $135,000 so far in 2016.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We’ve got reality on our side,” Ebell said. He called the investigation of Exxon an “inquisition.” Ebell’s group received about $2 million from Exxon in the 2000s before the company switched direction and stopped funding the small group.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Challenging the overwhelming consensus among scientists that climate change is real, Ebell said that “the first thing they try to do is try to change reality. They try to change the facts.” He added, “The next thing they try to do is exaggerate the impacts.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“This is not about climate change, and it’s not about fraud,” Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange interjected, according to a recording of the event provided by the Center for Media and Democracy. “It’s about if elected officials should be able to turn the prosecutorial power of their states against their political opponents in contradiction of our First Amendment and our basic speech rights in this country.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Strange, who becomes RAGA chairman in November, told the group that he had “never received a penny from Exxon in any campaign I’ve run.” The oil giant, however, gave $50,000 to RAGA in 2015 and another $50,000 this year, according to filings by RAGA to the Treasury.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Environmental groups say the RAGA meeting in July was no different from their own efforts; the Republican attorneys general plotted strategy with like-minded groups. The environmentalists say that they are exercising the free speech RAGA claims to be protecting and that they also have the right to petition government officials and to consult experts. Their meetings were not secret, they add.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“This is much more like collusion,” said Nick Surgey, research director at the Center for Media and Democracy. “These corporations have leverage because they pay into RAGA. And most of their money goes to elections.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Much of RAGA’s strategy will revolve around television ads in states where the group hopes to make a difference.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The group has booked $3.8 million in broadcast and cable TV advertising time for the final five weeks of the state attorney general campaign in North Carolina, where the Republican nominee, state Sen. Buck Newton, is in a tough race against Democratic state Sen. Josh Stein.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The association has already spent, through its Mountaineers Are Always Free PAC, nearly $2 million on four rounds of ads in West Virginia, where it is highlighting the fight against the Clean Power Plan, which would hurt the state’s coal industry. And it has sent $2 million to Josh Hawley’s campaign for attorney general in Missouri, which allows direct contributions. RAGA plans further spending in those states as well as in Pennsylvania and Indiana.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">#1:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">AG INDIVIDUAL SUM: $2,871,208</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">An examination of industry donations to the Republican Attorneys General who have joined the lawsuit</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">against the Clean Power Plan. Republican Attorneys General who were appointed or do not have</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">campaign contribution records are excluded.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1. Alabama – Luther Strange</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$314,788</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2. Arizona - Mark Brnovich</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$11,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">3. Arkansas – Leslie Rutledge</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$32,875</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">4. Colorado – Cynthia Coffman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$22,828</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">5. Florida – Pam Bondi</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$26,350</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">6. Georgia – Sam Olens</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$43,925</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">7. Indiana – Greg Zoeller</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$28,200</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">8. Kansas – Derek Schmidt</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$129,737</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">9. Louisiana – Buddy Caldwell</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$98,642</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">10. Michigan – Bill Schuette</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$172,241</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">11. Montana – Tim Fox</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$35,241</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">12. Nebraska – Doug Peterson</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$4,053</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">13. North Dakota - Wayne Stenehjem</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$87,801</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">14. Nevada – Adam Paul Laxalt</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$27,300</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">15. Ohio – Mike DeWine</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$335,763</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">16. Oklahoma - Scott Pruitt</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$305,996</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">17. South Carolina – Alan Wilson</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$39,050</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">18. South Dakota – Marty Jackley</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$10,826</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">19. Texas – Ken Paxton</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$1,067,817</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">20. Utah – Sean Reyes</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$2,800</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">21. West Virginia – Patrick Morrissey</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$53,500</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">22. Wisconsin – Brad Schimel</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$20,475</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;http://blogs.denverpost.com/thespot/2014/07/30/colorado-attorney-general-raga-cynthia-coffman/111212/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Republican Attorneys General Association is under fire in Colorado and Alabama for earlier donations to political-action committees. In Colorado, the money was used to hammer former Congressman Tom Tancredo in the governor’s primary.&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The $2.6 million investment for Coffman is more than four times the amount spent by any candidate ever running for attorney general in Colorado, Quick said, and is believed to be the first time outside money has played a role in the race.&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I don’t think Colorado voters are going to like a group from the outside trying to buy the attorney general’s office,” said Quick, the former Adams County district attorney. “There may be a real estate boom right now but the attorney general’s office isn’t up for sale.”[he was wrong]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Scott Will, the political director for RAGA, has refused to tell The Denver Post why the organization, whose stated mission is to elect Republicans for attorney general, played in Colorado’s four-way GOP June 24 gubernatorial primary. Will did comment on the money for Coffman.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“RAGA is investing heavily in this race because Colorado voters are rejecting the Obama agenda and making it clear that they want leaders like Cynthia Coffman who will rein in the federal government,” he said.&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">RAGA in June funneled $155,000 to a super PAC with ties to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign. The money paid for automated calls and a radio ad attacking Tancredo, and a TV spot that highlighted another gubernatorial candidate, Bob Beauprez, at Tancredo’s expense. Beauprez beat Tancredo and two other GOP rivals in the June 24 primary. Days later, the Republican Governors Association contributed $175,000 to RAGA.&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tancredo has demanded that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, chairman of RGA, provide a full explanation and release communications between his group and RAGA.&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In Alabama, the RAGA donation to a PAC intended to benefit Luther Strange, the Republican attorney general seeking re-election, has been called illegal because of state campaign finance laws. Luther returned the $50,000 PAC donation after reporters asked questions, but a complaint has been filed with the Alabama Ethics Commission.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Luther’s RAGA donation is paltry compared to the $2.6 million for Coffman.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Republican operative Jessica Medeiros Garrison has become known in recent weeks for her connections to Luther Strange, including an extramarital affair with the Alabama attorney general. But in a strictly political sense, Garrison's strongest ties might be to another Republican, one of national significance.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We are talking about U.S. Circuit Judge William H. "Bill" Pryor, who entered the spotlight in 2003 when he became President George W. Bush's controversial nominee to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Pryor drew such strong opposition from Democrats, primarily because of his stance against abortion rights, that Bush was forced to make a recess appointment in February 2004. Among the issues at Pryor's confirmation hearing was his decision to schedule a family vacation to Disney World so as not to coincide with the park's "Gay Days" festivities.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pryor's national profile recently became even stronger when President Obama inexplicably appointed him to a six-year term on the U.S. Sentencing Commission. By statute, the commission must be bipartisan, and at least three of its members must be federal judges. But of all the federal judges in the country, including Republican appointees from Democratic-leaning states, why would Obama choose Bill Pryor? Was it a favor to U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a long-time Pryor supporter?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a recent newspaper interview, Jessica Garrison lists Bill Pryor as her "real-life hero" and calls him a "mentor" who has given her invaluable advice "since I was in college." (More on that interview in an upcoming post.) The relationship apparently started when Garrison worked as an intern in the attorney general's office under Sessions, and Pryor was one of his chief deputies. When Pryor ascended to the AG's position, Garrison worked for him in public relations and legislative affairs.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Many Alabamians probably assume that Pryor is based in Atlanta, home to the Eleventh Circuit. But he lives in Birmingham and is based at the Hugo Black U.S. Courthouse downtown, where he has an office on the ninth floor.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pryor's profile, however, extends beyond the courthouse door. He is involved with a Birmingham-based ministry that has connections to the downtown law firm where Garrison serves in an "of counsel" position. And Pryor started the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA), which now is Garrison's primary employer.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That raises this question: Has Bill Pryor been involved in the maneuvering that apparently started with the Strange/Garrison affair, her divorce from Tuscaloosa city councilman Lee Garrison, and her effort to modify their custody agreement so she could take a job under Strange at the attorney general's office? More specifically, has Pryor been involved in the curious financial payments and peculiar real-estate transactions that are central to the Strange/Garrison saga?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pryor is known as "the Johnny Appleseed" of the Federalist Society, the ultra-conservative legal group for which he started chapters in New Orleans and Birmingham. He also is known as a deeply religious sort who wears his Catholic faith for all to see.&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If Bill Pryor is such a moral guy, why would he come anywhere near the mess that Luther Strange and Jessica Garrison have created? Besides that, what kind of mentor is Bill Pryor if one of his acolytes becomes ensnared in a scandal that involves an extramarital affair and other ugliness?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What about Pryor's ties to a Birmingham "ministry"--and why would he be involved in such an organization, given that he is a federal judge in a democracy that supposedly is based, in part, on a separation of church and state?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Web site for the Fixed Point Foundation states that its mission is "to seek innovative ways to defend and proclaim the Gospel and to prepare Christians to do the same." Prominent among Fixed Point's speakers is Bill Pryor, and he has served as a debate moderator for the foundation.&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fixed Point's staff includes Will Hill Tankersley, a partner at Birmingham's Balch Bingham, as outside general counsel. The Balch firm happens to be where Jessica Garrison landed an "of counsel" position after having to give up her position in the attorney general's office in order to resolve a custody dispute.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To add to the intrigue, Garrison's primary job is with RAGA, which is an affiliate of the D.C.-based Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC). As we noted in a previous post, Luther Strange has a habit of using RSLC as more or less a money-laundering organization:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We know that Strange takes hypocrisy on gambling issues to monumental dimensions. After all, this is the guy who has tried to shut down non-Indian gaming facilities, such as VictoryLand in Macon County and Center Stage Alabama in Houston County, while taking a $100,000 campaign contribution from the Poarch Creek casinos. This also is the guy who used the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) to help obscure the donation via a PAC-to-PAC transfer.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Federal judges have lifetime appointments, so the public and the press tend to think they are above scrutiny. But perhaps it's time to shine a spotlight on Bill Pryor's ties to the Luther Strange/Jessica Garrison mess.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the meantime, here is Bill Pryor speaking at a 2007 Federalist Society symposium on morality and the law:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">uther Johnson Strange, III (born March 1, 1953), is the 49th Attorney General of the U.S. state of Alabama.[1] Strange was a candidate for public office in both 2006 and 2010.[2][3] In 2006, Strange ran for Lieutenant Governor of Alabama and defeated George Wallace, Jr. in the Republican primary. Strange then lost the general election to Democrat Jim Folsom, Jr.. In 2010, Strange defeated incumbent Attorney General Troy King in the Republican primary, before going on to win the general election on November 2, 2010, against Democrat James Anderson.[4]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Personal life</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Luther Strange was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and lived in Sylacauga until the age of six, when his family moved to Homewood. Strange is an Eagle Scout.[1]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Strange graduated from Shades Valley High School in 1970. He earned his undergraduate degree from Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, and then his Juris Doctor in 1979 from Tulane University Law School. Strange was admitted to the Alabama State Bar in 1981.[5]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Prior to being elected Attorney General, Strange was the founder of the law firm Strange LLC., based in Birmingham. Prior to founding his firm, he was a partner with Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP.[1]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In December 2011, Strange was honored as a Distinguished Eagle Scout, by the Boy Scouts of America.[6][7]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Strange and his family reside in Mountain Brook, a suburb of Birmingham. He and his wife, Melissa, have two sons.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Career as Attorney General</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In March 2014, Strange brought Alabama into a lawsuit filed by Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster against California's egg production standards as embodied in Prop 2. In October 2014, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit, rejecting the states' challenge to Proposition 2, California's prohibition on the sale of eggs laid by caged hens kept in conditions more restrictive than those approved by California voters in a 2008 ballot initiative. Judge Kimberly Mueller ruled that Alabama and the other states lacked legal standing to sue on behalf of their residents and that the plaintiffs were representing solely the interests of egg farmers, not "a substantial statement of their populations." [8][9][10][11][12]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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