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fossil fuel interest groups have mobilized quickly to oppose a new rule issued by the Biden administration designed to speed up America’s transition to hybrid and electric vehicles.

The rule, which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized on March 20, limits emissions from tailpipes on new cars, starting in 2027.

Well before the EPA finalized the new standard, powerful corporate lobbies like the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) had already promised to spend at least a million dollars campaigning against the rule by falsely portraying it as a “ban” on new cars. The group’s warn viewers that their freedoms and choices “will soon be taking a back seat to big government.”

The EPA predicts that the change would result in around two-thirds of new vehicle sales being hybrid or electric by 2032 — up from around eight percent today.

Beyond stopping more than 7 billion tons of carbon pollution, the agency predicts that the rule could save drivers more than $60 billion in fuel and maintenance costs, according to an EPA fact sheet that accompanied the final rule. The pollution reduction benefits would particularly benefit Black and brown communities because they are disproportionately likely to suffer from air pollution.

“These strongest-ever pollution standards for cars solidify America’s leadership in building a clean transportation future and creating good-paying American jobs,” EPA administrator Michael S. Regan said in a statement.

Compared to the EPA’s initial proposal, the final rule was scaled back to give car manufacturers more time to comply, but the New York Times still described the new standard as “one of the most significant climate regulations in the nation’s history.”

The heads of AFPM and the American Petroleum Institute (API) — the leading trade group for the oil and gas industry — declared in a joint statement that the rule “will unequivocally eliminate most new gas cars and traditional hybrids from the U.S. market in less than a decade.”

In February, AFPM had already begun portraying the rule as a “car ban” and announced a “seven-figure issue campaign” featuring TV and digital ads, as well as billboards and text messages. Some of the efforts target electoral swing states, including Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. The group also launched a website that warns readers, in all caps, to “keep the government’s hands off our cars!”

Despite the industry’s attempt to misleadingly brand the new standard, “this is not a ban of internal combustion engines,” Margaret Wooldridge, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan, said in a statement.

Last year, AFPM spent nearly $7 million lobbying the federal government — more than any year in its history — according to OpenSecrets.

The top two bills the group reported lobbying for are designed to prevent the EPA from finalizing or enforcing vehicle emissions standards. Both bills passed the House last year. (Chevron, API, Koch Industries, and Marathon Petroleum are among the other industry groups and companies that lobbied for these bills last year.)

In addition to lobbying Congress and running million-dollar public influence campaigns, corporate trade groups have increasingly used lawsuits and the threat of costly, time-consuming litigation to stop or delay climate-related regulations.

Earlier this month, for instance, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) finalized a long-delayed rule that requires public companies to disclose some of their emissions and climate risks that could impact their businesses. While the published rule was substantially weaker than what the SEC originally proposed, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce was among a handful of conservative interest groups that immediately challenged the measure in court.

Another recent EPA rule targeting methane emissions also met with opposition from Republican officials and oil and gas interests, according to Politico.

And on March 6, barely a month after the EPA finalized a separate rule limiting soot pollution, API, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the Chamber were among eight trade groups that sued the agency in the D.C. Circuit court.

‘Prepared to challenge it in court’

In a blog post, AFPM claims that the EPA “does not have authority to overhaul the U.S. economy or transportation system or compel — directly or otherwise — the use of EVs to address vehicle emissions.”

Similar objections to the authority of federal agencies to issue regulations have found a receptive audience among the Supreme Court’s conservative majority.

If the EPA doesn’t undo the tailpipe emissions rule, “our organizations are certainly prepared to challenge it in court,” the AFPM and API CEOs said in the joint statement that followed the announcement.

In attacking the rule, corporate interest groups like AFPM are following a well-trod path of fighting new climate regulations on every playing field they can find.

During the Trump administration, AFPM helped lead a successful effort to weaken previous EPA fuel efficiency standards. The group helped marshal Republican governors to advocate for the rollback, while also supporting Energy4US, a front group that encouraged Americans to flood the EPA with public comments, as DeSmog previously reported.

“One of the big advantages that oil industry lobbyists like AFPM have is money, and AFPM certainly isn’t afraid to use it,” Jesse Coleman, a senior researcher at the investigative outlet Documented, told DeSmog in an email.

“Million dollar ad campaigns are an unfortunately common way for groups like AFPM to pressure legislators and regulators by raising the political temperature on an issue. Litigation slows things further, leading to years of delays in implementation.”

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https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/1339571/1-raga.pdf

2014 mtg docs

...And the input poured forth. The states worked to detail major federal environmental action, like efforts to curb fish kills, reduce ozone pollution, slow climate change and tighten regulation of coal ash. Then they identified which attorney general’s office was best positioned to try to monitor it and, if necessary, attempt to block it.

Follow-up by Mr. Pruitt’s federalism office often came after coordination with industry representatives, especially from Devon Energy. The company, one of the most important financial supporters for the Republican Attorneys General Association, is guarded about its public profile. But it readily turned to Mr. Pruitt and his staff for help, setting up meetings for the attorney general with its chief executive, its chief lobbyist and other important players.

“We have a clear obligation to our shareholders and others to be involved in these discussions,” John Porretto, a Devon spokesman, said in a statement.

While some of the exchanges were general in character, others were quite explicit, especially the communication about the E.P.A.’s methane regulations that had prompted Mr. Whitsitt, the Devon official, to propose that Mr. Pruitt send a letter to the agency.

“Just a note to pass along the electronic version of the draft letter to Lisa Jackson at E.P.A.,” said one September 2011 letter to Mr. Pruitt’s chief of staff from Mr. Whitsitt. “We have no pride of authorship, so whatever you do on this is fine.”

Mr. Pruitt took the letter and, after changing just 37 words in the 1,016-word draft, copied it onto his state government letterhead and sent it to Ms. Jackson, the E.P.A. administrator.

That was just one of his challenges to Washington. Devon officials also turned to Mr. Pruitt to enlist other Republican attorneys general and Republican governors to oppose a rule proposed by the Bureau of Land Management that would regulate hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, on federal land.

“As promised, we are sending you the attached draft of the R.G.A./RAGA follow-up letter to President Obama opposing B.L.M.’s proposed rule,” Brent Rockwood, Devon’s director of government affairs, wrote to Mr. Pruitt’s staff in late 2012, in an email marked “confidential.”

Weeks later, that letter was sent to Mr. Obama without only a few word changes, signed by Mr. Pruitt and Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, who was the head of the Republican Governors Association at the time.

Photo

ANDREW P. MILLER A version of the lobbyist’s bill was approved by the West Virginia Legislature. Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

Company officials again expressed their pleasure to Mr. Pruitt.

“I’ve learned that we’re having an effect — and may be able to have more, perhaps even to having the rule withdrawn or shifted to almost a reporting-only one,” Mr. Whitsitt wrote, in another email marked “confidential.”

Continue reading the main story

RECENT COMMENTS

David Nice December 8, 2014

I am not very surprised by this article. Disappointed but not surprised.

mannyv December 8, 2014

Don't environmental groups and other liberal causes get into secretive alliances with government officials and the press all the time?What...

Armando December 8, 2014

This is because we are in the list of corrupted countries. But the voters are not informed, the media do not educate the people and it is...

SEE ALL COMMENTS

The rule — which the industry claims would cost $346 million a year to comply with — has still not been issued.

Coordination between the corporations and teams of attorneys general involved in the Rule of Law effort also involves actual litigation to try to clear roadblocks to energy projects, documents show.

Energy producers, for instance, wanted to sue the Interior Department as it considered adding animals such as the sage grouse — which nests near sites of oil and gas drilling — to a list of endangered species, a move that could put tens of thousands of acres off limits to new drilling.

The energy companies could have sued on their own, but their executives believed that the case would be more potent by bringing in Mr. Pruitt and the weight of the State of Oklahoma.

“We just came to the conclusion he would be the best person to be the lead attorney on this,” said Mike McDonald, an owner of Triad Energy, a small oil and gas exploration company, and the president of a group that calls itself the Domestic Energy Producers Alliance. “He has exceeded our expectations.”

For the industry, the state is an extremely valued partner because states are granted “special solicitude” from the federal courts, a critical advantage to private companies that helps confer legal standing and means that a matter is less likely to be dismissed.

Continue reading the main story

Mr. Pruitt’s office, in a statement to The Times, rejected any suggestion that the attorney general has been wrong to send to Washington comment letters written by industry lobbyists, or to take up their side in litigation.

“The A.G.’s office seeks input from the energy industry to determine real-life harm stemming from proposed federal regulations or actions,” the statement said. “It is the content of the request not the source of the request that is relevant.”

Photo

HAROLD G. HAMM The oil drilling executive was the chairman of Mr. Pruitt’s re-election campaign. Credit Kevin Cederstrom/Associated Press

Persuading lawmakers to offer legislation has been another effective lobbying tool. In West Virginia, Mr. Miller handed Attorney General Patrick Morrisey a draft of legislation that he argued would put West Virginia in a better position to sue the Obama administration over proposed regulations to tighten pollution controls on power plants, emails show.

“I trust you will find the legislation acceptable in its present form,” Mr. Miller wrote to Mr. Morrisey in February, referring to a private meeting the two had had in the law library of Mr. Morrisey’s office in Charleston. “If so, I would appreciate your having it introduced by your friends in both the Senate and the House.”

A version of the bill was introduced and passed by the West Virginia Legislature in March. Delegate Rupert Phillips Jr., the chief sponsor of a second bill that also contained language identical to what Mr. Miller had requested, said in an interview that he had acted with Mr. Morrisey’s support, an account supported by William B. Raney, the president of the West Virginia Coal Association.

“It is nice to have everybody singing from the same sheet of music,” Mr. Raney said.

A spokesman for Mr. Morrisey disputed this account, saying that while he supported the effort to challenge the rule, he did not play a role in promoting the legislation.

Blurred Lines

The work in Mr. Pruitt’s office has sometimes seemed to blur the distinction between his official duties and the advancement of his political career.

Mr. Pruitt’s chief of staff, Crystal Drwenski, served as gatekeeper to his office, arranging meetings and helping companies get Mr. Pruitt and his staff to intervene with the federal authorities. But Ms. Drwenski also played an important supplemental role for the attorney general: fund-raising aide.

“A.G. Pruitt is working with the Republican Attorneys General Association on their national meeting in Washington,” Ms. Drwenski wrote to Mr. Whitsitt. “The benefit of membership and participation is having 25 Republican A.G.s in a room to discuss policy issues.”

Ms. Drwenski wanted Devon Energy’s help in enlisting the American Petroleum Institute, and Mr. Whitsitt agreed.

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Several of the largest donors to the Republican and Democratic Attorneys General Associations are companies or groups that have been targets of investigations or are seeking help from attorneys general in challenging federal regulations. OCT. 28, 2014 RELATED ARTICLE

KEY

$100,000

$500,000

$2.3 million

DONOR

AMOUNT GIVEN TO:

RELEVANT ISSUES

Reps.

Dems.

’14*

’13-’14

U.S. Chamber of

Commerce

Pushing attorneys general to curb what it considers excessive litigation against

pharmaceutical, financial services and other industries.

Conservative nonprofit groups pushing for limits on federal environmental

regulation and continued challenges to the Obama health care program.

Judicial Crisis Network

American Future Fund

C.E.O. of Las Vegas Sands, seeking attorneys general support to ban online poker.

Sheldon G. Adelson

Pushing Democrats to support a narrower definition of “independent contractor."

Teamsters union

Pinnacle West Capital

Owner of an Arizona electric utility that could benefit from action taken by the

attorney general there in challenging federal rules on coal-burning power plants.

Involved in recent disputes over continuing payouts from the 1998 tobacco

settlement and seeking to play a role in decisions over regulation of e-cigarettes.

Altria

Reynolds America

Members of the network were targeted, but cleared, in an inquiry alleging anti-

competitive practices. Plaintiff's lawyers have urged that new actions be filed.

Blue Cross & Blue Shield

Devon Energy

Seeking help in blocking Obama administration rules governing fracking.

Trinity Industries

Targeted in investigations related to alleged defects in its highway guardrails.

Seeking antitrust approval for a proposed merger with Time Warner Cable.

Comcast

Previously targeted by attorneys general for alleged deceptive marketing practices.

Rent-A-Center

Recently settled a case related to its marketing and issuance of residential

mortgage-backed securities before 2009.

Citigroup

Google

Targeted in an inquiry into allegations that it allows illegal products to be

sold via its search engine.

Coca-Cola

A possible target if attorneys general pursue litigation, as one law firm has

advocated, against the food industry concerning obesity-related health costs.

DirecTV

Antitrust review underway related to a proposed merger with AT&T. Previously

targeted for alleged deceptive marketing.

Herbalife International

Targeted in an inquiry over allegations of fraudulent business practices.

Plaintiff's law firm seeking to act as contingency lawyer to attorneys general.

Labaton Sucharow

5-Hour Energy affiliates

Targeted in a consumer fraud investigation over product labeling and claims.

Targeted in multiple investigations related to alleged fradulent drug marketing.

Pfizer

*Contributions for 2013 are not available for the Republican Attorneys General Association, because until J

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/us/politics/energy-firms-in-secretive-alliance-with-attorneys-general.html?_r=0

Energy Firms in Secretive Alliance With Attorneys General By ERIC LIPTON DEC. 6, 2014 The letter to the Environmental Protection Agency from Attorney General Scott Pruitt of Oklahoma carried a blunt accusation: Federal regulators were grossly overestimating the amount of air pollution caused by energy companies drilling new natural gas wells in his state. But Mr. Pruitt left out one critical point. The threepage letter was written by lawyers for Devon Energy, one of Oklahoma’s biggest oil and gas companies, and was delivered to him by Devon’s chief of lobbying. “Outstanding!” William F. Whitsitt, who at the time directed government relations at the company, said in a note to Mr. Pruitt’s office. The attorney general’s staff had taken Devon’s draft, copied it onto state government stationery with only a few word changes, and sent it to Washington with the attorney general’s signature. “The timing of the letter is great, given our meeting this Friday with both E.P.A. and the White House.” Mr. Whitsitt then added, “Please pass along Devon’s thanks to Attorney General Pruitt.” The email exchange from October 2011, obtained through an openrecords request, offers a hint of the unprecedented, secretive alliance that Mr. 12/5/2015 Energy Firms in Secretive Alliance With Attorneys General The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/us/politics/energyfirmsinsecretivealliancewithattorneysgeneral.html?_r=0 2/16 Pruitt and other Republican attorneys general have formed with some of the nation’s top energy producers to push back against the Obama regulatory agenda, an investigation by The New York Times has found. Attorneys general in at least a dozen states are working with energy companies and other corporate interests, which in turn are providing them with record amounts of money for their political campaigns, including at least $16 million this year. They share a common philosophy about the reach of the federal government, but the companies also have billions of dollars at stake. And the collaboration is likely to grow: For the first time in modern American history, Republicans in January will control a majority — 27 — of attorneys general’s offices. The Times reported previously how individual attorneys general have shut down investigations, changed policies or agreed to more corporatefriendly settlement terms after intervention by lobbyists and lawyers, many of whom are also campaign benefactors. But the attorneys general are also working collectively. Democrats for more than a decade have teamed up with environmental groups such as the Sierra Club to use the court system to impose stricter regulation. But never before have attorneys general joined on this scale with corporate interests to challenge Washington and file lawsuits in federal court. Out of public view, corporate representatives and attorneys general are coordinating legal strategy and other efforts to fight federal regulations, according to a review of thousands of emails and court documents and dozens of interviews. “When you use a public office, pretty shamelessly, to vouch for a private party with substantial financial interest without the disclosure of the true authorship, that is a dangerous practice,” said David B. Frohnmayer, a 12/5/2015 Energy Firms in Secretive Alliance With Attorneys General The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/us/politics/energyfirmsinsecretivealliancewithattorneysgeneral.html?_r=0 3/16 Republican who served a decade as attorney general in Oregon. “The puppeteer behind the stage is pulling strings, and you can’t see. I don’t like that. And when it is exposed, it makes you feel used.” For Mr. Pruitt, the benefits have been clear. Lobbyists and company officials have been notably solicitous, helping him raise his profile as president for two years of the Republican Attorneys General Association, a post he used to help start what he and allies called the Rule of Law campaign, which was intended to push back against Washington. That campaign, in which attorneys general band together to operate like a large national law firm, has been used to back lawsuits and other challenges against the Obama administration on environmental issues, the Affordable Care Act and securities regulation. The most recent target is the president’s executive action on immigration. “We are living in the midst of a constitutional crisis,” Mr. Pruitt told energy industry lobbyists and conservative state legislators at a conference in Dallas in July, after being welcomed with a standing ovation. “The trajectory of our nation is at risk and at stake as we respond to what is going on.” Mr. Pruitt has responded aggressively, and with a lot of helping hands. Energy industry lobbyists drafted letters for him to send to the E.P.A., the Interior Department, the Office of Management and Budget and even President Obama, The Times found. Industries that he regulates have also joined him as plaintiffs in court challenges, a departure from the usual role of the state attorney general, who traditionally sues companies to force compliance with state law. Energy industry lobbyists have also distributed draft legislation to attorneys general and asked them to help push it through state legislatures to give the attorneys general clearer authority to challenge the Obama regulatory agenda, the documents show. 12/5/2015 Energy Firms in Secretive Alliance With Attorneys General The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/us/politics/energyfirmsinsecretivealliancewithattorneysgeneral.html?_r=0 4/16 “It is quite new,” said Paul Nolette, a politicalscience professor at Marquette University and the author of the forthcoming book “Federalism on Trial: State Attorneys General and National Policy Making in Contemporary America.” “The scope, size and tenor of these collaborations is, without question, unprecedented.” And it is an emerging practice that several former attorneys general say threatens the integrity of the office. “It is a magnificent and noble institution, the office of attorney general, as it is truly the lawyer for the people,” said Terry Goddard, a Democrat who served two terms as Arizona’s attorney general and who, like Mr. Frohnmayer, reviewed copies of the documents collected by The Times. “That independence is clearly at risk here. What is happening diminishes the reputation of individual attorneys general and the community as a group.” Mr. Pruitt, who has emerged as a hero to conservative activists, dismissed this criticism as misinformed. “Those kinds of questions arise from the environment we are in — a very dysfunctional, distrustful political environment,” Mr. Pruitt said in an interview. “I can say to you that is not who we are or have ever been, and despite those criticisms we sit around and make decisions about what is right, and what represents adherence to the rule of law, and we seek to advance that and try to do the best we can to educate people about our viewpoint.” In a state dominated by the energy industry, Mr. Pruitt’s stands have been widely popular. “Attorney General Pruitt has been a champion for our state,” said State Senator Mike Schulz, a Republican who is the majority floor leader. “The State of Oklahoma is in a better position than the E.P.A. to regulate drilling.” But Mr. Pruitt’s ties with industry are clear. One of his closest partners has been Harold G. Hamm, the billionaire chief executive of Continental 12/5/2015 Energy Firms in Secretive Alliance With Attorneys General The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/us/politics/energyfirmsinsecretivealliancewithattorneysgeneral.html?_r=0 5/16 Resources, which is among the biggest oil and gas drilling companies in both Oklahoma and North Dakota. This year, Mr. Pruitt joined with a group aligned with Mr. Hamm to sue the Interior Department over its plan to consider adding animals such as the lesser prairie chicken to the endangered species list, a move that Mr. Hamm has said could knock out “some of the most promising land for oil and gas leases in the country.” The suit was filed after Mr. Hamm announced that he would serve as the chairman of Mr. Pruitt’s reelection campaign. “Time and time again, General Pruitt has stood up and bravely fought for the rights of Oklahomans in those instances when the federal government has overextended its hand,” Mr. Hamm said as his role in Mr. Pruitt’s reelection effort was announced. A Potent Ally Energy industry executives and lobbyists from across the United States saw great potential in Mr. Pruitt, a gifted politician who had been a state legislator and a minorleague baseball team coowner and executive before running for attorney general. Among them was Andrew P. Miller, a patrician 81yearold former Virginia attorney general. Mr. Miller is a regular at gatherings of state attorneys general at resort destinations, and his client list includes TransCanada, the backer of the Keystone XL pipeline; the Southern Company, the Georgiabased electric utility, which has a large number of coalburning power plants; and the investor group behind the proposed Pebble Mine in Alaska. For the energy industry, Mr. Pruitt was an easy choice. “There’s a mentality emanating from Washington today that says, ‘We know best,’ ” Mr. Pruitt said during his 2010 campaign. “It’s a onesizefitsall 12/5/2015 Energy Firms in Secretive Alliance With Attorneys General The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/us/politics/energyfirmsinsecretivealliancewithattorneysgeneral.html?_r=0 6/16 strategy, a commandandcontrol kind of approach, and we’ve got to make sure we know how to respond to that.” Among Mr. Pruitt’s first acts was to create a “federalism office,” which challenged the Obama administration’s plan to reduce haze in southwestern Oklahoma by requiring coalburning electricity plants in the state to install new pollution control equipment. His interaction with the industry, Mr. Pruitt said during an interview at his Oklahoma City office, has been motivated by a desire to gather information from experts, while defending his state’s longstanding tradition of selfdetermination. That ethos, he said, is depicted in a large oil painting in his office that shows local authorities with rifles at the ready confronting outsiders during the land rush era. “The founders recognized that power concentrated in a few is a bad thing,” Mr. Pruitt said. Mr. Miller made it his job to promote Mr. Pruitt nationally, both as a spokesman for the Rule of Law campaign and as the president of the Republican Attorneys General Association. “I regard the general as the A.G. best suited to take this lead on this question of federalism,” Mr. Miller wrote to Mr. Pruitt’s chief of staff in April 2012. “The touchstone of this initiative would be to organize the states to resist federal ‘overreach’ whenever it occurs.” To Mr. Miller, having Mr. Pruitt as an advocate fit a broader strategy. He wanted state attorneys general to band together the way they did when they challenged the health care law in 2010. In that effort, they hired a major national corporate law firm, Baker Hostetler, to argue the case, with much of the bill being paid through donations from executives at corporations that oppose the law. 12/5/2015 Energy Firms in Secretive Alliance With Attorneys General The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/us/politics/energyfirmsinsecretivealliancewithattorneysgeneral.html?_r=0 7/16 In his initial appeal to Mr. Pruitt, Mr. Miller insisted that his approach was not “client driven.” But he soon began to name individual clients — TransCanada and Pebble Mine in Alaska — that he wanted to include in the effort. The E.P.A. has held up the Pebble Mine project, which could potentially yield 80 billion pounds of copper, after concluding it would “threaten one of the world’s most productive salmon fisheries.” “This strike force ought to take the form of a national state litigation team to challenge the E.P.A.’s overreach,” Mr. Miller said in an email to Mr. Pruitt’s office. “Like the Dalmatian at the proverbial firehouse, it could move out smartly when the alarm sounded.” A Call to Arms Mr. Miller’s pitch to Mr. Pruitt became a reality early last year at the historic Skirvin Hilton Hotel in Oklahoma City, where he brought together an extraordinary assembly of energy industry power brokers and attorneys general from nine states for what he called the Summit on Federalism and the Future of Fossil Fuels. The meeting took place in the shadow of office towers that dominate Oklahoma City’s skyline and are home to Continental Resources, a leader in the nation’s fastestgrowing oil field, the Bakken formation of North Dakota, as well as Devon Energy, which drilled 1,275 new wells last year. More liberal attorneys general, such as Douglas F. Gansler, Democrat of Maryland, did not participate. “Indeed, General Gansler would in all likelihood try to hijack your summit,” Mr. Miller wrote to Mr. Pruitt in an email. “At best you would be left to preside over a debate, rather than a call to arms.” Oklahoma energy companies were there, according to an agenda, joined by executives from Peabody Energy of Missouri, the world’s largest private 12/5/2015 Energy Firms in Secretive Alliance With Attorneys General The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/us/politics/energyfirmsinsecretivealliancewithattorneysgeneral.html?_r=0 8/16 sector coal producer, as well as the Southern Company, which has aggressively challenged federal air pollution mandates. The nation’s top corporate energy regulatory lawyers were there, too, including F. William Brownell, a senior partner at the law firm Hunton & Williams, which has spent more than 25 years fighting the enforcement of the Clean Air Act. The event was organized by an energyindustryfunded law and economics center at George Mason University of Virginia. The center is part of the brain trust of conservative, proindustry groups that have worked from the sidelines to help Mr. Pruitt and other attorneys general. And there was nothing ambiguous about the agenda. “Suggested Responses to Assaults on Federalism” was the topic of one breakfast meeting, moderated by Attorney General Wayne K. Stenehjem of North Dakota, that showcased Mr. Brownell and three other top corporate regulatory lawyers. Mr. Hamm was the featured dinner speaker. “We need to ensure the robust role of the states,” said Paul M. Seby, another coal industry lawyer who attended. “And as the chief law enforcement officers, it is not surprising this is becoming a cornerstone of attorney generals’ attention.” Attorneys general said they had no choice but to team up with corporate America. “When the federal government oversteps its legal authority and takes actions that hurt our businesses and residents, it’s entirely appropriate for us to partner with the adversely affected private entities in fighting back,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi of Florida, whose top deputy attended the meeting. A ‘Strike Force’ The impact of the gathering was immediate. A week later, a new 12/5/2015 Energy Firms in Secretive Alliance With Attorneys General The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/us/politics/energyfirmsinsecretivealliancewithattorneysgeneral.html?_r=0 9/16 Federalism in Environmental Policy task force was established by lawyers in the offices of 19 state attorneys general, according to email records obtained from the office of Attorney General Timothy C. Fox of Montana, who had participated in the Oklahoma meeting. “This message is in followup to the excellent environmental conference put on last week by George Mason University and hosted by the Oklahoma attorney general’s office,” said one email sent by Katie Spohn, the deputy attorney general in Nebraska. “In order to continue our coordination of efforts regarding Federalism in Environmental Policy, I am seeking input from each state who participated in the conference.” Mr. Miller was pleased. “Just the kind of strike force I was talking about,” he said in an interview. And the input poured forth. The states worked to detail major federal environmental action, like efforts to curb fish kills, reduce ozone pollution, slow climate change and tighten regulation of coal ash. Then they identified which attorney general’s office was best positioned to try to monitor it and, if necessary, attempt to block it. Followup by Mr. Pruitt’s federalism office often came after coordination with industry representatives, especially from Devon Energy. The company, one of the most important financial supporters for the Republican Attorneys General Association, is guarded about its public profile. But it readily turned to Mr. Pruitt and his staff for help, setting up meetings for the attorney general with its chief executive, its chief lobbyist and other important players. “We have a clear obligation to our shareholders and others to be involved in these discussions,” John Porretto, a Devon spokesman, said in a statement. While some of the exchanges were general in character, others were quite explicit, especially the communication about the E.P.A.’s methane regulations that had prompted Mr. Whitsitt, the Devon official, to propose that Mr. Pruitt 12/5/2015 Energy Firms in Secretive Alliance With Attorneys General The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/us/politics/energyfirmsinsecretivealliancewithattorneysgeneral.html?_r=0 10/16 send a letter to the agency. “Just a note to pass along the electronic version of the draft letter to Lisa Jackson at E.P.A.,” said one September 2011 letter to Mr. Pruitt’s chief of staff from Mr. Whitsitt. “We have no pride of authorship, so whatever you do on this is fine.” Mr. Pruitt took the letter and, after changing just 37 words in the 1,016 word draft, copied it onto his state government letterhead and sent it to Ms. Jackson, the E.P.A. administrator. That was just one of his challenges to Washington. Devon officials also turned to Mr. Pruitt to enlist other Republican attorneys general and Republican governors to oppose a rule proposed by the Bureau of Land Management that would regulate hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, on federal land. “As promised, we are sending you the attached draft of the R.G.A./RAGA followup letter to President Obama opposing B.L.M.’s proposed rule,” Brent Rockwood, Devon’s director of government affairs, wrote to Mr. Pruitt’s staff in late 2012, in an email marked “confidential.” Weeks later, that letter was sent to Mr. Obama without only a few word changes, signed by Mr. Pruitt and Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, who was the head of the Republican Governors Association at the time. Company officials again expressed their pleasure to Mr. Pruitt. “I’ve learned that we’re having an effect — and may be able to have more, perhaps even to having the rule withdrawn or shifted to almost a reportingonly one,” Mr. Whitsitt wrote, in another email marked “confidential.” The rule — which the industry claims would cost $346 million a year to comply with — has still not been issued. 12/5/2015 Energy Firms in Secretive Alliance With Attorneys General The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/us/politics/energyfirmsinsecretivealliancewithattorneysgeneral.html?_r=0 11/16 Coordination between the corporations and teams of attorneys general involved in the Rule of Law effort also involves actual litigation to try to clear roadblocks to energy projects, documents show. Energy producers, for instance, wanted to sue the Interior Department as it considered adding animals such as the sage grouse — which nests near sites of oil and gas drilling — to a list of endangered species, a move that could put tens of thousands of acres off limits to new drilling. The energy companies could have sued on their own, but their executives believed that the case would be more potent by bringing in Mr. Pruitt and the weight of the State of Oklahoma. “We just came to the conclusion he would be the best person to be the lead attorney on this,” said Mike McDonald, an owner of Triad Energy, a small oil and gas exploration company, and the president of a group that calls itself the Domestic Energy Producers Alliance. “He has exceeded our expectations.” For the industry, the state is an extremely valued partner because states are granted “special solicitude” from the federal courts, a critical advantage to private companies that helps confer legal standing and means that a matter is less likely to be dismissed. Mr. Pruitt’s office, in a statement to The Times, rejected any suggestion that the attorney general has been wrong to send to Washington comment letters written by industry lobbyists, or to take up their side in litigation. “The A.G.’s office seeks input from the energy industry to determine reallife harm stemming from proposed federal regulations or actions,” the statement said. “It is the content of the request not the source of the request that is relevant.” Persuading lawmakers to offer legislation has been another effective lobbying tool. In West Virginia, Mr. Miller handed Attorney General Patrick 12/5/2015 Energy Firms in Secretive Alliance With Attorneys General The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/us/politics/energyfirmsinsecretivealliancewithattorneysgeneral.html?_r=0 12/16 Morrisey a draft of legislation that he argued would put West Virginia in a better position to sue the Obama administration over proposed regulations to tighten pollution controls on power plants, emails show. “I trust you will find the legislation acceptable in its present form,” Mr. Miller wrote to Mr. Morrisey in February, referring to a private meeting the two had had in the law library of Mr. Morrisey’s office in Charleston. “If so, I would appreciate your having it introduced by your friends in both the Senate and the House.” A version of the bill was introduced and passed by the West Virginia Legislature in March. Delegate Rupert Phillips Jr., the chief sponsor of a second bill that also contained language identical to what Mr. Miller had requested, said in an interview that he had acted with Mr. Morrisey’s support, an account supported by William B. Raney, the president of the West Virginia Coal Association. “It is nice to have everybody singing from the same sheet of music,” Mr. Raney said. A spokesman for Mr. Morrisey disputed this account, saying that while he supported the effort to challenge the rule, he did not play a role in promoting the legislation. Blurred Lines The work in Mr. Pruitt’s office has sometimes seemed to blur the distinction between his official duties and the advancement of his political career. Mr. Pruitt’s chief of staff, Crystal Drwenski, served as gatekeeper to his office, arranging meetings and helping companies get Mr. Pruitt and his staff to intervene with the federal authorities. But Ms. Drwenski also played an important supplemental role for the attorney general: fundraising aide. 12/5/2015 Energy Firms in Secretive Alliance With Attorneys General The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/us/politics/energyfirmsinsecretivealliancewithattorneysgeneral.html?_r=0 13/16 “A.G. Pruitt is working with the Republican Attorneys General Association on their national meeting in Washington,” Ms. Drwenski wrote to Mr. Whitsitt. “The benefit of membership and participation is having 25 Republican A.G.s in a room to discuss policy issues.” Ms. Drwenski wanted Devon Energy’s help in enlisting the American Petroleum Institute, and Mr. Whitsitt agreed. “I’ve put in a plug to A.P.I.,” Mr. Whitsitt wrote back to Ms. Drwenski, a few hours after her request, having reached out to the organization’s senior lobbyist, Marty Durbin. “He is expecting a call.” In addition to the American Petroleum Institute, major energy companies — ConocoPhillips, the oil and gas company; Alpha Natural Resources, a coal mining giant; and American Electric Power, the nation’s biggest coal consumer — have recently joined the Republican Attorneys General Association, bringing in hundreds of thousands of additional dollars to the group, internal documents show. By last year, the association was starting to pull in so much money under Mr. Pruitt’s leadership that it decided to break free from its partnership with the Republican State Leadership Committee, a group that represents state elected officials. Within months, the association also set up the Rule of Law Defense Fund, yet another legal entity that allows companies benefiting from the actions of Mr. Pruitt and other Republican attorneys general to make anonymous donations, in unlimited amounts. Fundraising skyrocketed. The $16 million that the association has collected this year is nearly four times the amount it collected in 2010, money it used mostly to buy millions of dollars’ worth of television advertisements in states like Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado and Nevada, all places where Republican candidates for attorney general won election. The fundraising has taken place on the state level as well. Oklahoma Gas 12/5/2015 Energy Firms in Secretive Alliance With Attorneys General The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/us/politics/energyfirmsinsecretivealliancewithattorneysgeneral.html?_r=0 14/16 & Electric — a forprofit utility that Mr. Pruitt joined with in federal court to fight the E.P.A. — invited its employees to the Petroleum Club in downtown Oklahoma City late last year for a fundraising event for Mr. Pruitt, drawing donations from about 45 company employees, including the chief executive. Four days later, Mr. Pruitt filed a new appeal in the case — timing that the utility said was a coincidence. While Mr. Pruitt’s efforts to raise money for the Republican Attorneys General Association have been an unqualified success, the lawsuits and regulatory appeals he has filed have yielded mixed results. In May, the Supreme Court declined to take up the appeal on the Oklahoma Gas & Electric matter, meaning the company is now moving ahead on retrofitting its coalburning plants. But other lawsuits are pending, including Mr. Pruitt’s challenge of the DoddFrank law, which rewrote the nation’s financial regulations, and, perhaps most important, his challenge of the tax subsidies that are a critical part of the Obama administration’s health care law. Mr. Pruitt’s staff has juggled various duties — helping major corporations push their challenges against Washington, and then turning to these same executives, at times, to ask them for financial support. For example, Ms. Drwenski, who is no longer Mr. Pruitt’s chief of staff, asked Devon Energy in 2012, on a workday afternoon, for help in signing up the American Petroleum Institute as a member of the Republican Attorneys General Association. She used her personal email account to send out the initial request. But the subsequent exchange took place on her work email account, even though Oklahoma state law prohibits state officials from using state property or time to solicit political contributions. A spokesman for Mr. Pruitt said, “It is entirely possible she could have been taking a late lunch.” 12/5/2015 Energy Firms in Secretive Alliance With Attorneys General The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/us/politics/energyfirmsinsecretivealliancewithattorneysgeneral.html?_r=0 15/16 Mr. Pruitt, who ran unopposed to win a second term, has not needed much of the money himself, but his fundraising efforts have greatly benefited other Republicans running for the job. That explains the partylike atmosphere late last month in South Florida, where members of the Republican Attorneys General Association held their fall meeting at the chic Fontainebleau Miami Beach, along with hundreds of lobbyists, lawyers and corporate executives, whose companies had paid as much as $125,000 for the privilege to celebrate with them. During the opening reception, on a giant terrace overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, with red, white and blue lights beaming onto the walls and rock music blasting, the Republican attorneys general strode to the stage to trumpet their new majority in the states. Mr. Pruitt was there for the weekend’s festivities, an event at which Devon Energy served as a corporate host, with banners hung in the hotel hallways featuring the corporate logo. The Oklahoma attorney general’s stay was brief. The Rule of Law campaign had a new and urgent target. “Our president sees himself as above the law,” Mr. Pruitt said from Oklahoma City as he announced several days later yet another front in the campaign, a lawsuit he planned to file to challenge the Obama administration’s new immigration policies. “We will take action to hold him accountable. Correction: December 14, 2014 A picture credit last Sunday with the continuation of an article about Republican attorneys general in several states who have formed a secretive alliance with some of the nation’s top energy producers to oppose President Obama’s regulatory agenda misidentified the photographer in some editions. The picture, of Scott Pruitt, the 12/5/2015 Energy Firms in Secretive Alliance With Attorneys General The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/us/politics/energyfirmsinsecretivealliancewithattorneysgeneral.html?_r=0 16/16 Oklahoma attorney general, was taken by Dylan Hollingsworth, not by Nick Oxford. Nick Madigan contributed reporting. A version of this article appears in print on December 7, 2014, on page A1 of the New

http://www.alternet.org/environment/mayor-bloomberg-defending-obama-goes-after-state-attorneys-general-protecting-polluters

Michael Bloomberg has not been shy about using his vast personal wealth (estimated at $40.9 billion) on political spending [3]. Last year the former New York City mayor announced plans to spend $50 million building a national grassroots movement to curb gun violence. It's a significant amount, especially considering the fact that the National Rifle Association spends only $20 million [4] on political activities each year.

Now the perennial putative presidential candidate has set his sights on a new target: carbon emissions. Last month, he announced his plans [5] to run a series of political television ads attacking the attorneys general of four states — Florida, Michigan, Missouri and Wisconsin — who are suing the Obama administration over new regulations aimed at reducing emissions [6] from power plants. The attorneys general claim the rules will drive up energy costs and destroy coal industry jobs. Notably, the four states have been presidential battlegrounds.

Two of the Bloomberg ads describe the attorneys general as bending to special interests and taking donations from “polluters.” The ad airing in Michigan accuses Attorney General Bill Schuette of “putting polluters and his campaign contributors ahead [5] of protecting Michigan families.” The Florida ad describes Pam Bondi, a Republican, as “an attorney general for polluters, not for us [5].”

“These four attorneys general are trying to stop the president from doing something that I think is terribly important,” Bloomberg told [5] the New York Times. “I want the public to know what they’re doing.”

The regulations, part of the EPA’s Clean Power Plan [7] (CPP), which was introduced in August, are a central element of Obama’s Climate Action Plan [8], which aims to fulfill the president’s 2009 pledge to reduce the nation’s overall greenhouse gas emissions 17 percent [8] below 2005 levels by 2020. To meet that goal, the CPP sets state-by-state targets to cut carbon emissions from the energy sector 32 percent [9] from 2005 levels by 2030.

The White House asserts that by setting the goals of CPP and allowing states to create tailored plans to meet them, there will be huge benefits for public health, the national economy and savings for average Americans. Specifically, the White House says it will create tens of thousands of jobs, lower the costs of renewable energy and save consumers $155 billion between 2020 and 2030. The CPP will also:

Prevent up to 3,600 premature deaths

Prevent 1,700 non-fatal heart attacks

Prevent 90,000 asthma attacks in children

Prevent 300,000 missed workdays and school days

Save Americans nearly $85 a year on energy bills

Save enough energy to power 30 million homes

Lead to 30 percent more renewable energy generation

Still, the CPP has met with fierce, primarily Republican opposition, with conservative critics saying it represents an unconstitutional federal overreach, will drive up energy bills and reduce the electric grid’s reliability. The EPA has firmly dismissed these claims. Janet McCabe, acting assistant administrator of the agency’s Office of Air and Radiation, said the plan is “based on a sound legal and technical foundation," adding that it "really puts states in the driver's seat [10]."

The four attorneys general who are the targets of Bloomberg's ads are fighting back. According to the New York Times, Wisconsin Attorney General Brad D. Schimel said in an email statement that Bloomberg is an “out-of-touch billionaire.” And in a statement, Florida attorney general Pam Bondi described Bloomberg as a “billionaire bully [11]”:

Florida has a great and conscientious track record of improving its air quality and protecting its environment … Now a billionaire bully is attacking Florida, and 26 other states, for having the audacity of defending their citizens against the EPA’s heavy-handed and unlawful regulations. This bully wants to defend the federal government; we want to protect the people we serve.

In her announcement [12] about the lawsuit, Bondi claimed the EPA rule sets an "unrealistic" timeframe to cut carbon emissions by 2030 and would "require the use of costly and unproven technologies."

Twenty states are challenging the EPA rule in addition to the four targeted by Bloomberg: West Virginia, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming, the Arizona Corporation Commission, and the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.

Environmental concerns are not new for Bloomberg. During his tenure as mayor of New York, 2002 to 2013, he became known as one of the most environmentally minded big city mayors in the country, introducing in 2007 PLaNYC [13], an aggressive program to overhaul the city’s environmental sustainability by 2030 that tackled 10 specific areas: housing and neighborhoods, parks and public spaces, brownfields, waterways, water supply, transportation, energy, air quality, solid waste, and climate change. According to NYC.gov [14], “Over 97% of the 127 initiatives in PlaNYC were launched within one year of its release and almost two-thirds of its 2009 milestones were achieved or mostly achieved.”

A main benefactor of the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal [15] campaign, Bloomberg has been a longtime opponent of coal, characterizing it as a naturally dying industry. In an August op-ed, he wrote [16]:

The overblown political rhetoric about the plan tends to obscure the market reality that the coal industry has been in steady decline for a decade, partly as a result of the natural gas boom, but mostly because consumers are demanding cleaner air and action on climate change … King Coal is dying of natural causes: Market forces, technological advances, and public demands for clean air and climate action have combined to make alternative sources of energy more financially attractive. The price of new wind power, for example, is lower than that of coal in most parts of the country.

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times said that Bloomberg’s new ads “amount to a defense [5] of the White House over its Clean Power Plan.”

Whether this defense will work remains to be seen. But one thing is for certain: Coal is on the decline and fewer Americans are dying because of it. “A decade ago, coal pollution was killing 13,000 people a year,” Bloomberg wrote in his op-ed. “Today, the number is down to 7,500, which means that more than 5,000 Americans are living longer, healthier lives each year thanks to cleaner power [16].”

Reynard Loki is AlterNet's environment and food editor. Follow him on Twitter @reynardloki [17]. Email him at reynard@alternet.org [18].

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2015/11/wellspring-gives-big-boost-to-judicial-crisis-network-with-6-6-million-grant/

secretive nonprofit that has given millions of dollars to conservative 501(c)(4) groups over the years sank more than $6.6 million into the Judicial Crisis Network in 2014, giving a significant boost to a group that has become increasingly involved in not only state judicial but also attorneys general races.

The donor, the Wellspring Committee, gave out nearly $8.3 million in grants last year, according to a new filing with the IRS, more than triple what it donated the year before. The sum was more than Wellspring has given away in any year except 2010, when it sent $8.4 million to like-minded organizations. That year, though, JCN and an offshoot group received just $400,000 from Wellspring, a sliver of what it got last year.

The bond between the two groups is strong — familial, even. Wellspring was founded and is still headed by Ann Corkery, a lawyer who for years has been involved in conservative fundraising and also helped launch JCN. Her husband, Neil, is JCN’s treasurer. Their daughter, Kathleen, is on Wellspring’s board, and the secretary-treasurer of the group, Michael Casey, is the son of one of JCN’s board members.

Wellspring received all of its 2014 revenue of $7.8 million from just three contributions — one of which was a transfer of $6.95 million, according to the annual form 990 it filed this month. Like other (c)(4) organizations, Wellspring is not required to disclose the identities of its donors. The group’s 990 says its “mission is to advance limited government and free markets.” But it functions as little more than a conduit, with no program activities of its own and virtually all of its money going out to other groups....

JCN was formed in 2005 as the Judicial Confirmation Network to help get President George W. Bush’s Supreme Court appointees approved by the Senate. After President Barack Obama was elected, though, “Confirmation” became “Crisis,” and the group began fighting to block his nominees to the high court. It also started spending large sums in some states to influence judicial and attorneys general races.

JCN also sent funds to other groups that worked to sway state judgeship elections, such as the Republican State Leadership Committee, which spent more money putting conservatives on the bench in more states than any other outside group in 2014, according to the nonpartisan organization Justice at Stake.

But attorneys general have been a growing focus of conservative donor groups. Carrie Severino, JCN’s chief counsel, said in 2012 that conservative AGs, many of whom have challenged Obamacare, the Dodd-Frank financial services overhaul and EPA regulations, are “emerging as key leaders in the battle for limited constitutional government.”

In 2014 JCN gave $1 million to the Republican Attorneys General Association, making it the third largest donor to the GOP organization that year. Between mid-2013 and mid-2014 JCN also donated $1.35 million — the largest grant it handed out in that period — to another dark money group, the American Future Fund, which has its own project to elect GOP attorneys general and is also a donor toRAGA. According to RAGA’s disclosure filings, JCN gave it another $200,000 in the first half of 2015.

Similarly, Wellspring gave $350,000 to something called the American Dream Initiative last year — a group run by Dan Backer that spent hundreds of thousands of dollars attacking the Democratic candidate in Texas’ 2014 attorney general race.

This fall, JCN has spent at least $200,000 on TV and digital ads criticizing Supreme Court Justices Anthony Kennedy and John Roberts, comparing them to former Justice David Souter — a Republican appointee who often sided with the more liberal wing of the court. While Roberts and Kennedy can hardly be called liberals (particularly Roberts), two of the court’s decisions last term, one upholding the Affordable Care Act and one legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide, triggered widespread disgust on the right. JCN’s statement announcing the ads called Kennedy and Roberts “examples of bad GOP appointments.” The group has a website describing the judicial appointment philosophies of the Republican presidential candidates.

Our efforts to reach Wellspring and JCN for comment by phone and on foot were unsuccessful. We visited the address JCN lists on its 990 — 722 12th St. NW, fourth floor — and found only Americans for Tax Reform, the group headed by Grover Norquist that asks candidates to sign a pledge saying they won’t raise taxes. An ATR receptionist was noncommittal about whether JCN had offices in the suite but said she would get a message to someone connected with the group.

Other Wellspring grants went to the Federalist Society, a conservative legal organization whose executive vice president, Leonard Leo, was instrumental in getting both Wellspring and JCN off the ground, and the Catholic Association.

Categories: 501(c) groups Outside Money

Tags: american dream initiative, American Future Fund, ann corkery, carrie severino, Dan Backer, Federalist Society, Judicial Crisis Network, leonard leo, Neil Corkery, republican attorneys general association,Republican State Leadership Committee, Viveca Novak, Wellspring Committee

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/us/politics/energy-firms-in-secretive-alliance-with-attorneys-general.html

abbot pruitt epa clean air plan

1st time majority gop, backroom deals

12/14 lipton:

Energy Firms in Secretive Alliance With Attorneys General

The letter to the Environmental Protection Agency from Attorney General Scott Pruitt of Oklahoma carried a blunt accusation: Federal regulators were grossly overestimating the amount of air pollution caused by energy companies drilling new natural gas wells in his state.

But Mr. Pruitt left out one critical point. The three-page letter was written by lawyers for Devon Energy, one of Oklahoma’s biggest oil and gas companies, and was delivered to him by Devon’s chief of lobbying.

“Outstanding!” William F. Whitsitt, who at the time directed government relations at the company, said in a note to Mr. Pruitt’s office. The attorney general’s staff had taken Devon’s draft, copied it onto state government stationery with only a few word changes, and sent it to Washington with the attorney general’s signature. “The timing of the letter is great, given our meeting this Friday with both E.P.A. and the White House.”

Mr. Whitsitt then added, “Please pass along Devon’s thanks to Attorney General Pruitt.”

Courting Favor

Articles in this series examine the explosion in lobbying of state attorneys general by corporate interests and the millions in campaign donations they now provide.

The email exchange from October 2011, obtained through an open-records request, offers a hint of the unprecedented, secretive alliance that Mr. Pruitt and other Republican attorneys general have formed with some of the nation’s top energy producers to push back against the Obama regulatory agenda, an investigation by The New York Times has found.

Attorneys general in at least a dozen states are working with energy companies and other corporate interests, which in turn are providing them with record amounts of money for their political campaigns, including at least $16 million this year.

They share a common philosophy about the reach of the federal government, but the companies also have billions of dollars at stake. And the collaboration is likely to grow: For the first time in modern American history, Republicans in January will control a majority — 27 — of attorneys general’s offices.

The Times reported previously how individual attorneys general have shut down investigations, changed policies or agreed to more corporate-friendly settlement terms after intervention by lobbyists and lawyers, many of whom are also campaign benefactors.

But the attorneys general are also working collectively. Democrats for more than a decade have teamed up with environmental groups such as the Sierra Club to use the court system to impose stricter regulation. But never before have attorneys general joined on this scale with corporate interests to challenge Washington and file lawsuits in federal court.

Out of public view, corporate representatives and attorneys general are coordinating legal strategy and other efforts to fight federal regulations, according to a review of thousands of emails and court documents and dozens of interviews.

“When you use a public office, pretty shamelessly, to vouch for a private party with substantial financial interest without the disclosure of the true authorship, that is a dangerous practice,” said David B. Frohnmayer, a Republican who served a decade as attorney general in Oregon. “The puppeteer behind the stage is pulling strings, and you can’t see. I don’t like that. And when it is exposed, it makes you feel used.”

For Mr. Pruitt, the benefits have been clear. Lobbyists and company officials have been notably solicitous, helping him raise his profile as president for two years of the Republican Attorneys General Association, a post he used to help start what he and allies called the Rule of Law campaign, which was intended to push back against Washington.

That campaign, in which attorneys general band together to operate like a large national law firm, has been used to back lawsuits and other challenges against the Obama administration on environmental issues, the Affordable Care Act and securities regulation. The most recent target is the president’s executive action on immigration.

“We are living in the midst of a constitutional crisis,” Mr. Pruitt told energy industry lobbyists and conservative state legislators at a conference in Dallas in July, after being welcomed with a standing ovation. “The trajectory of our nation is at risk and at stake as we respond to what is going on.”

DOCUMENT

A Window Into a Secret Alliance: Attorneys General and the Energy Industry

The New York Times submitted open-records requests for correspondence between certain energy industry executives and attorneys general who are helping lead an effort they call the Rule of Law campaign to combat Obama administration regulations. Thousands of pages of correspondence emerged. Here is a sampling of the documents, showing how the regulated industries and their lobbyists have secretly worked with the attorneys general to combat Washington.

OPEN DOCUMENT

Mr. Pruitt has responded aggressively, and with a lot of helping hands. Energy industry lobbyists drafted letters for him to send to the E.P.A., the Interior Department, the Office of Management and Budget and even President Obama, The Times found.

Industries that he regulates have also joined him as plaintiffs in court challenges, a departure from the usual role of the state attorney general, who traditionally sues companies to force compliance with state law.

Energy industry lobbyists have also distributed draft legislation to attorneys general and asked them to help push it through state legislatures to give the attorneys general clearer authority to challenge the Obama regulatory agenda, the documents show.

“It is quite new,” said Paul Nolette, a political-science professor at Marquette University and the author of the forthcoming book “Federalism on Trial: State Attorneys General and National Policy Making in Contemporary America.” “The scope, size and tenor of these collaborations is, without question, unprecedented.”

And it is an emerging practice that several former attorneys general say threatens the integrity of the office.

“It is a magnificent and noble institution, the office of attorney general, as it is truly the lawyer for the people,” said Terry Goddard, a Democrat who served two terms as Arizona’s attorney general and who, like Mr. Frohnmayer, reviewed copies of the documents collected by The Times. “That independence is clearly at risk here. What is happening diminishes the reputation of individual attorneys general and the community as a group.”

Mr. Pruitt, who has emerged as a hero to conservative activists, dismissed this criticism as misinformed.

“Those kinds of questions arise from the environment we are in — a very dysfunctional, distrustful political environment,” Mr. Pruitt said in an interview. “I can say to you that is not who we are or have ever been, and despite those criticisms we sit around and make decisions about what is right, and what represents adherence to the rule of law, and we seek to advance that and try to do the best we can to educate people about our viewpoint.”

In a state dominated by the energy industry, Mr. Pruitt’s stands have been widely popular. “Attorney General Pruitt has been a champion for our state,” said State Senator Mike Schulz, a Republican who is the majority floor leader. “The State of Oklahoma is in a better position than the E.P.A. to regulate drilling.”

But Mr. Pruitt’s ties with industry are clear. One of his closest partners has been Harold G. Hamm, the billionaire chief executive of Continental Resources, which is among the biggest oil and gas drilling companies in both Oklahoma and North Dakota.

GRAPHIC

A Letter From Oklahoma’s Attorney General, Written Almost Entirely by Energy Company Officials

Devon Energy’s lawyers and lobbyists drafted letters and provided them to Attorney General Scott Pruitt to send to the Environmental Protection Agency, the Interior Department and even President Obama directly. Most of those letters were signed by Mr. Pruitt and sent with few changes. Here is one example, obtained through open-records requests.

OPEN GRAPHIC

This year, Mr. Pruitt joined with a group aligned with Mr. Hamm to sue the Interior Department over its plan to consider adding animals such as the lesser prairie chicken to the endangered species list, a move that Mr. Hamm has said could knock out “some of the most promising land for oil and gas leases in the country.” The suit was filed after Mr. Hamm announced that he would serve as the chairman of Mr. Pruitt’s re-election campaign.

“Time and time again, General Pruitt has stood up and bravely fought for the rights of Oklahomans in those instances when the federal government has overextended its hand,” Mr. Hamm said as his role in Mr. Pruitt’s re-election effort was announced.

A Potent Ally

Energy industry executives and lobbyists from across the United States saw great potential in Mr. Pruitt, a gifted politician who had been a state legislator and a minor-league baseball team co-owner and executive before running for attorney general.

Among them was Andrew P. Miller, a patrician 81-year-old former Virginia attorney general. Mr. Miller is a regular at gatherings of state attorneys general at resort destinations, and his client list includes TransCanada, the backer of the Keystone XL pipeline; the Southern Company, the Georgia-based electric utility, which has a large number of coal-burning power plants; and the investor group behind the proposed Pebble Mine in Alaska.

For the energy industry, Mr. Pruitt was an easy choice.

“There’s a mentality emanating from Washington today that says, ‘We know best,’ ” Mr. Pruitt said during his 2010 campaign. “It’s a one-size-fits-all strategy, a command-and-control kind of approach, and we’ve got to make sure we know how to respond to that.”

Among Mr. Pruitt’s first acts was to create a “federalism office,” which challenged the Obama administration’s plan to reduce haze in southwestern Oklahoma by requiring coal-burning electricity plants in the state to install new pollution control equipment.

His interaction with the industry, Mr. Pruitt said during an interview at his Oklahoma City office, has been motivated by a desire to gather information from experts, while defending his state’s longstanding tradition of self-determination.

That ethos, he said, is depicted in a large oil painting in his office that shows local authorities with rifles at the ready confronting outsiders during the land rush era. “The founders recognized that power concentrated in a few is a bad thing,” Mr. Pruitt said.

More of Nation’s Attorneys General Are Republican

Aided by record fund-raising by the Republican Attorneys General Association, Republicans, for the first time in modern history, will control a majority of state attorney general posts in 2015.

Party of incoming attorneys general by state, 2015

Money raised by attorney general associations

Number of attorneys general by party

CHART

Sources: Republican and Democratic Attorneys General Associations (fund-raising numbers); Paul Nolette, department of political science, Marquette University (attorneys general by party and state)

By Alicia Parlapiano

Mr. Miller made it his job to promote Mr. Pruitt nationally, both as a spokesman for the Rule of Law campaign and as the president of the Republican Attorneys General Association.

“I regard the general as the A.G. best suited to take this lead on this question of federalism,” Mr. Miller wrote to Mr. Pruitt’s chief of staff in April 2012. “The touchstone of this initiative would be to organize the states to resist federal ‘overreach’ whenever it occurs.”

To Mr. Miller, having Mr. Pruitt as an advocate fit a broader strategy. He wanted state attorneys general to band together the way they did when they challenged the health care law in 2010. In that effort, they hired a major national corporate law firm, Baker Hostetler, to argue the case, with much of the bill being paid through donations from executives at corporations that oppose the law.

In his initial appeal to Mr. Pruitt, Mr. Miller insisted that his approach was not “client driven.” But he soon began to name individual clients — TransCanada and Pebble Mine in Alaska — that he wanted to include in the effort. The E.P.A. has held up the Pebble Mine project, which could potentially yield 80 billion pounds of copper, after concluding it would “threaten one of the world’s most productive salmon fisheries.”

“This strike force ought to take the form of a national state litigation team to challenge the E.P.A.’s overreach,” Mr. Miller said in an email to Mr. Pruitt’s office. “Like the Dalmatian at the proverbial firehouse, it could move out smartly when the alarm sounded.”

A Call to Arms

Mr. Miller’s pitch to Mr. Pruitt became a reality early last year at the historic Skirvin Hilton Hotel in Oklahoma City, where he brought together an extraordinary assembly of energy industry power brokers and attorneys general from nine states for what he called the Summit on Federalism and the Future of Fossil Fuels.

The meeting took place in the shadow of office towers that dominate Oklahoma City’s skyline and are home to Continental Resources, a leader in the nation’s fastest-growing oil field, the Bakken formation of North Dakota, as well as Devon Energy, which drilled 1,275 new wells last year.

More liberal attorneys general, such as Douglas F. Gansler, Democrat of Maryland, did not participate.

“Indeed, General Gansler would in all likelihood try to hijack your summit,” Mr. Miller wrote to Mr. Pruitt in an email. “At best you would be left to preside over a debate, rather than a call to arms.”

Top Individual Recipients of Energy Industry Money Since 2004

Many attorneys general collect contributions directly from energy industry donors, in addition to money passed on from party associations. Attorney General Scott Pruitt of Oklahoma, for example, has received at least $215,574 from companies and industry employees since 2010, even though he ran unopposed in his most recent election.

Attorney generals highlighted in gray

will be in office in 2015

ATTORNEY

GENERAL

ELECTION

YEARS

PARTY

STATE

CONTRIBUTIONS

Greg Abbott

Tex.

$2,459,204

2006, 2010

Tom Corbett

Pa.

577,192

2004, 2008

Ken Paxton

Tex.

488,411

2014

Mike DeWine

Ohio

321,033

2010, 2014

Luther Strange

Ala.

279,200

2010, 2014

Gary K. King

N.M.

228,018

2006, 2010

Scott Pruitt

Okla.

215,574

2010, 2014

Chris Koster

Mo.

202,419

2008, 2012

Bill Schuette

Mich.

190,516

2010, 2014

Kenneth T.

Cuccinelli II

Va.

174,638

2009

Notes: 2014 data is incomplete. Scott Pruitt was unopposed in 2014.

Source: National Institute on Money in State Politics (energy industry contributions)

By Alicia Parlapiano

Oklahoma energy companies were there, according to an agenda, joined by executives from Peabody Energy of Missouri, the world’s largest private-sector coal producer, as well as the SouthernCompany, which has aggressively challenged federal air pollution mandates.

The nation’s top corporate energy regulatory lawyers were there, too, including F. William Brownell, a senior partner at the law firm Hunton & Williams, which has spent more than 25 years fighting the enforcement of the Clean Air Act.

The event was organized by an energy-industry-funded law and economics center at George Mason University of Virginia. The center is part of the brain trust of conservative, pro-industry groups that have worked from the sidelines to help Mr. Pruitt and other attorneys general.

And there was nothing ambiguous about the agenda.

“Suggested Responses to Assaults on Federalism” was the topic of one breakfast meeting, moderated by Attorney General Wayne K. Stenehjem of North Dakota, that showcased Mr. Brownell and three other top corporate regulatory lawyers. Mr. Hamm was the featured dinner speaker.

“We need to ensure the robust role of the states,” said Paul M. Seby, another coal industry lawyer who attended. “And as the chief law enforcement officers, it is not surprising this is becoming a cornerstone of attorney generals’ attention.”

Attorneys general said they had no choice but to team up with corporate America. “When the federal government oversteps its legal authority and takes actions that hurt our businesses and residents, it’s entirely appropriate for us to partner with the adversely affected private entities in fighting back,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi of Florida, whose top deputy attended the meeting.

A ‘Strike Force’

The impact of the gathering was immediate. A week later, a new Federalism in Environmental Policy task force was established by lawyers in the offices of 19 state attorneys general, according to email records obtained from the office of Attorney General Timothy C. Fox of Montana, who had participated in the Oklahoma meeting.

“This message is in follow-up to the excellent environmental conference put on last week by George Mason University and hosted by the Oklahoma attorney general’s office,” said one email sent byKatie Spohn, the deputy attorney general in Nebraska. “In order to continue our coordination of efforts regarding Federalism in Environmental Policy, I am seeking input from each state who participated in the conference.”

PATRICK MORRISEY The West Virginia attorney general got a draft bill from a coal industry lawyer.

Mr. Miller was pleased. “Just the kind of strike force I was talking about,” he said in an interview.

And the input poured forth. The states worked to detail major federal environmental action, like efforts to curb fish kills, reduce ozone pollution, slow climate change and tighten regulation of coal ash. Then they identified which attorney general’s office was best positioned to try to monitor it and, if necessary, attempt to block it.

“We have a clear obligation to our shareholders and others to be involved in these discussions,” John Porretto, a Devon spokesman, said in a statement.

Mr. Pruitt took the letter and, after changing just 37 words in the 1,016-word draft, copied it onto his state government letterhead and sent it to Ms. Jackson, the E.P.A. administrator.

ANDREW P. MILLER A version of the lobbyist’s bill was approved by the West Virginia Legislature.

Company officials again expressed their pleasure to Mr. Pruitt.

The rule — which the industry claims would cost $346 million a year to comply with — has still not been issued.

Coordination between the corporations and teams of attorneys general involved in the Rule of Law effort also involves actual litigation to try to clear roadblocks to energy projects, documents show.

The energy companies could have sued on their own, but their executives believed that the case would be more potent by bringing in Mr. Pruitt and the weight of the State of Oklahoma.

HAROLD G. HAMM The oil drilling executive was the chairman of Mr. Pruitt’s re-election campaign.

“It is nice to have everybody singing from the same sheet of music,” Mr. Raney said.

A spokesman for Mr. Morrisey disputed this account, saying that while he supported the effort to challenge the rule, he did not play a role in promoting the legislation.

Blurred Lines

The work in Mr. Pruitt’s office has sometimes seemed to blur the distinction between his official duties and the advancement of his political career.

Ms. Drwenski wanted Devon Energy’s help in enlisting the American Petroleum Institute, and Mr. Whitsitt agreed.

“I’ve put in a plug to A.P.I.,” Mr. Whitsitt wrote back to Ms. Drwenski, a few hours after her request, having reached out to the organization’s senior lobbyist, Marty Durbin. “He is expecting a call.”

In addition to the American Petroleum Institute, major energy companies — ConocoPhillips, the oil and gas company; Alpha Natural Resources, a coal mining giant; and American Electric Power, the nation’s biggest coal consumer — have recently joined the Republican Attorneys General Association, bringing in hundreds of thousands of additional dollars to the group, internal documents show.

By last year, the association was starting to pull in so much money under Mr. Pruitt’s leadership that it decided to break free from its partnership with the Republican State Leadership Committee, a group that represents state elected officials. Within months, the association also set up the Rule of Law Defense Fund, yet another legal entity that allows companies benefiting from the actions of Mr. Pruitt and other Republican attorneys general to make anonymous donations, in unlimited amounts. Fund-raising skyrocketed.

The $16 million that the association has collected this year is nearly four times the amount it collected in 2010, money it used mostly to buy millions of dollars’ worth of television advertisements in states like Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado and Nevada, all places where Republican candidates for attorney general won election.

The fund-raising has taken place on the state level as well. Oklahoma Gas & Electric — a for-profit utility that Mr. Pruitt joined with in federal court to fight the E.P.A. — invited its employees to the Petroleum Club in downtown Oklahoma City late last year for a fund-raising event for Mr. Pruitt, drawing donations from about 45 company employees, including the chief executive. Four days later, Mr. Pruitt filed a new appeal in the case — timing that the utility said was a coincidence.

While Mr. Pruitt’s efforts to raise money for the Republican Attorneys General Association have been an unqualified success, the lawsuits and regulatory appeals he has filed have yielded mixed results.

In May, the Supreme Court declined to take up the appeal on the Oklahoma Gas & Electric matter, meaning the company is now moving ahead on retrofitting its coal-burning plants. But other lawsuits are pending, including Mr. Pruitt’s challenge of the Dodd-Frank law, which rewrote the nation’s financial regulations, and, perhaps most important, his challenge of the tax subsidies that are a critical part of the Obama administration’s health care law.

Mr. Pruitt’s staff has juggled various duties — helping major corporations push their challenges against Washington, and then turning to these same executives, at times, to ask them for financial support.

For example, Ms. Drwenski, who is no longer Mr. Pruitt’s chief of staff, asked Devon Energy in 2012, on a workday afternoon, for help in signing up the American Petroleum Institute as a member of the Republican Attorneys General Association.

She used her personal email account to send out the initial request. But the subsequent exchange took place on her work email account, even though Oklahoma state law prohibits state officials from using state property or time to solicit political contributions. A spokesman for Mr. Pruitt said, “It is entirely possible she could have been taking a late lunch.”

Mr. Pruitt, who ran unopposed to win a second term, has not needed much of the money himself, but his fund-raising efforts have greatly benefited other Republicans running for the job.

That explains the partylike atmosphere late last month in South Florida, where members of the Republican Attorneys General Association held their fall meeting at the chic Fontainebleau Miami Beach, along with hundreds of lobbyists, lawyers and corporate executives, whose companies had paid as much as $125,000 for the privilege to celebrate with them.

During the opening reception, on a giant terrace overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, with red, white and blue lights beaming onto the walls and rock music blasting, the Republican attorneys general strode to the stage to trumpet their new majority in the states.

Mr. Pruitt was there for the weekend’s festivities, an event at which Devon Energy served as a corporate host, with banners hung in the hotel hallways featuring the corporate logo.

The Oklahoma attorney general’s stay was brief. The Rule of Law campaign had a new and urgent target.

“Our president sees himself as above the law,” Mr. Pruitt said from Oklahoma City as he announced several days later yet another front in the campaign, a lawsuit he planned to file to challenge the Obama administration’s new immigration policies. “We will take action to hold him accountable.

JCN 2014 takeover AG nev, colo (mi wi?)

Attorneys general become focus

JCN’s surging dark money dollars found a new outlet last year when the network ponied up $1 million to the Republican Attorneys General Association for its 2014 drive to help the GOP capture AG seats in Nevada, Colorado, and elsewhere. That made JCN RAGA’s third-largest donor in a year when RAGA was instrumental in helping Republicans capture enough AG posts that they now hold the majority. RAGA and similar 527 organizations must disclose their donors, but the sources of JCN’s contributions remain in the dark.

On top of that, JCN sent $750,000 to the Iowa-based American Future Fund, which started its own AG project between July 1, 2012, and June 30, 2013, tax filings show — JCN’s largest grant of that fiscal year. In turn, AFF chipped in $680,000 to RAGA last year.

State attorneys general had been moving higher on JCN’s political radar. Policy director and chief counsel Carrie Severino, who succeeded Wendy Long as JCN’s counsel in 2010 and, like her, once clerked for Justice Thomas, wrote in National Review right before the 2012 elections that conservative AGs are “emerging as key leaders in the battle for limited constitutional government.” Many of them, she noted, had joined the challenge to Obamacare, and a number were also fighting the Dodd-Frank financial services overhaul and EPA regulations.

Dark money ties that bind

The JCN spending through RAGA to boost the GOP’s share of AG slots is just one example of the synergies that the network has forged as a dark money vehicle. Other ties binding JCN to various groups it has funded — and received money from — are evident in the comings and goings of personnel, consultants, and board members. For instance, when Gary Marx stepped down as JCN’s executive director in mid-2011, he took a similar post with Ralph Reed’s Faith and Freedom Coalition (a group that Wellspring helped in 2010 with a $250,000 check). Likewise, last year Chris Jankowski became a consultant to JCN after spending several years running the Republican State Leadership Committee until he departed suddenly in early 2014, according to multiple sources. Both JCN and Wellspring had funneled hundreds of thousands to the RSLC, which has helped the GOP chart major gains in legislatures and other state offices. (RAGA had been part of that group but was spun off early last year.)

But JCN’s tightest ties with any group or individual revolve around Ann and Neil Corkery, which meant that Wellspring’s links to JCN were personal as well as political. Serendipitously Ann Corkery’s husband Neil was JCN’s treasurer, a paid part-time gig. The group’s small board also includes Dan Casey, a veteran GOP operative and “the political and PR brains” of that shop, says one source. Wellspring’s board was made up of Ann Corkery and two people the Corkerys knew from their work with Catholic groups.

chart src of connections, not nec raga

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/28/us/politics/money-going-to-state-attorneys-general.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/us/politics/energy-firms-in-secretive-alliance-with-attorneys-general.html?smid=tw-share

nyt

...

Continue reading the main story

pruitt runs RG AG

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/12/07/3600475/investigation-energy-firms-attorneys-general-fighting-federal-government/

Energy firms and state attorneys general have established a secretive alliance in an effort to derail environmental oversight and promote fossil fuels, according to an in-depth New York Times’ investigation published this weekend. Having reviewed thousands of emails and legal documents and undertaken dozens of interviews, the Times found that “Republican attorneys general have formed with some of the nation’s top energy producers to push back against the Obama regulatory agenda.”

Using Oklahoma as an example, open-records requests revealed that Attorney General Scott Pruitt delivered a letter to the EPA in 2011 accusing the agency of significantly overestimating the air pollution caused by fracking. Pruitt did not mention that the letter was originally written by representatives of Devon Energy, one of the state’s largest oil and gas companies.

“The attorney general’s staff had taken Devon’s draft, copied it onto state government stationery with only a few word changes, and sent it to Washington with the attorney general’s signature,” reports the Times.

Devon Energy is a major supporter of the Republican Attorneys General Association, whose mission is electing Republicans to the Office of Attorney General. The company has donated significantly to the campaigns of climate deniers, giving $800,000 to former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s gubernatorial campaign in 2013. Devon Energy also gave over a million dollars to the lobbying effort in support of the Keystone XL pipeline in 2012. Pruitt is head of the Republican Attorneys General Association, which has collected $16 million this year — nearly four times the amount it collected in 2010.

According to the Times, at least a dozen states now have attorneys general working with “energy companies and other corporate interests” that are in exchange providing them with unheard of amounts of political funds. This impact of this effort can be seen in this year’s election results, as Republicans will hold 27 state attorney’s general offices starting in January — the first time they’ve had a majority in recent history.

The Times reports that Devon Energy “readily turned to Mr. Pruitt and his staff for help” as part of a broader national effort bringing together powerful energy interests and attorneys general. The establishment of a new Federalism in Environmental Policy task force by the offices of 19 state attorneys general has bolstered attempts to push back on federal actions to reduce ozone pollution, protect endangered species, regulate fracking, and limit greenhouse gas emissions. The scale of this coordination with corporate interests is unprecedented.

Pruitt changed 37 words out of 1,016 when repurposing a letter drafted by Devon lawyers for submission to then head of the EPA, Lisa Jackson, about the agency’s methane regulations. The Times published 80-plus pages of notes and documents showing the extent to which Devon and other energy companies have been working with state attorneys general to fight federal actions.

In responding to questions about his involvement with industry lobbyists, Pruitt said that “it is the content of the request not the source of the request that is relevant.” He went on to say that Devon Energy is an important energy producer and job creator for Oklahoma and that the overreach of the federal government into the regulation of fracking is not only bad for Devon, but also would negatively impact citizens of the state.

A recent study published in the journal Science found that nearly all of the more than 2,500 small earthquakes that have hit Oklahoma in the past five years can be linked to the process of drilling for oil and gas. Spills related to fracking have also threatenedwater supplies in the state.

In another recent display of the coordination between energy firms and state-level Republican politicians, this week the American Legislative Executive Council held their annual closed-door meeting in D.C. They pushed a number of anti-clean energy initiatives, including a resolution to abolish the EPA.

Attorney General of Alabama

Luther Strange

Attorney General of Arizona

Tom Horne

Attorney General of Colorado

John W. Suthers

Attorney General of Florida

Pam Bondi

Attorney General of Georgia

Sam Olens

Attorney General of Idaho

Lawrence Wasden

Attorney General of Indiana

Greg Zoeller

Attorney General of Kansas

Derek Schmidt

Attorney General of Louisiana

Buddy Caldwell

Attorney General of Michigan

Bill Schuette

Attorney General of Montana

Tim Fox

Attorney General of Nebraska

Jon Bruning

Attorney General of North Dakota

Wayne Stenehjem

Attorney General of Ohio

Mike DeWine

Attorney General of Oklahoma

Scott Pruitt

Attorney General of South Carolina

Alan Wilson

Attorney General of South Dakota

Marty J. Jackley

Attorney General of Texas

Greg Abbott

Attorney General of Utah

Sean Reyes

Attorney General of West Virginia

Patrick Morrisey

Attorney General of Wisconsin

J.B. Van Hollen

Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) is a Washington-based association of Republican Attorneys General. The association was created due to "concerns arising out of the industry-wide lawsuits that seek to promote public policy changes via the courthouse rather than the statehouse," and out of a desire to stop those with "a wish list for future mass state lawsuits-car rental companies, pharmaceutical firms, makers of lead paint and gun manufacturers."[1]

RAGA receives funding from major corporations, which can be considered a conflict of interest since some these corporations have, or are, suspected of criminal wrong-doing. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include:

Microsoft Corporation donated $10,000 to RAGA while being sued for antitrust violations by the Justice Department and 19 states. [2][3].

SBC Communications Inc. (now AT&T) donated $35,000 while its acquisition of Ameritech Corp. was facing review by state officials.

Aetna U.S. Healthcare gave $10,000 to RAGA while being accused of HMO fraud by Attorney General Dan Morales (D-TX) in 1998 just before he left office. Litigation stalled under Morales' Republican successor, John Cornyn. [4].

The Texas Observer reports,

"Since RAGA's creation in 1999, Simmons' two main holding companies, Contran and Valhi, have contributed $350,000 to the Republican PAC that launders RAGA's money, the Republican National State Elections Committee. RNSEC received another $211,000 since RAGA's creation from other companies that are defendants in the Rhode Island [lead paint] suit. This includes $201,000 from ARCO (and ARCO chairman emeritus Lodwrick Cook) and $10,000 from DuPont."

And,

"[John] Cornyn's position is even more worth watching because a leading defendant in Rhode Island's lawsuit is NL Industries, which is controlled by Dallas corporate raider Harold Simmons. Simmons is a major donor to Republican PACs and candidates. He gave $90,000 to George W. Bush's two gubernatorial campaigns and has given Cornyn $31,000 since 1998." [5]

In a two day fundraiser session back in the Spring of 2000 in Austin Texas, Karl Rove, George W. Bush's chief strategist, was featured. [6]

The primary method of contributing money to RAGA is to become a member. Membership costs from $5,000 to $25,000, with increasing levels of access to attorneys general depending on the donation amount.

Unfortunately, knowing the full details of the contributions RAGA receives is very difficult since all money received by RAGA is passed to the Republican National Committee without any public links, especially money received from direct solicitation by attorneys general.

Internal fundraising documents obtained by The Washington Post show that Republican state attorneys general were asked to solicit contributions from corporations and trade groups subject to lawsuits and regulations by their states. The companies solicited include Shell Oil, Brown & Williamson, Pfizer Inc., MasterCard Inc., Eli Lilly and Co., Anheuser-Busch Cos., Citigroup Inc., Amway Corp., U.S. Steel Corp., Nextel Communications Inc., General Motors, and Microsoft Corp. The documents state that company officials would be allowed to meet, participate in conference calls, and socialize with the attorneys general.

Attorneys general mentioned in the documents include John Cornyn, who was the State Attorney General of Texas before being elected to the Senate in 2002; Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor, founder of RAGA and pending President Bush federal appellate court nominee; former Virginia Attorney General Mark Earley; Delaware Attorney General Jane Brady; former South Carolina Attorney General Charlie Condon; and former Ohio Attorney General Betty Montgomery. [7]

Contents

??[hide]

1 Attorneys General

2 Known Contributers

3 External links

4 Other Related SourceWatch Resources

Attorneys General

The following attorneys general are known to be part of (past and present) RAGA:

Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor, founder of RAGA and pending President Bush federal appellate court nominee.

Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), State Attorney General of Texas before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 2002.

Virginia Attorney General Mark Earley.

Delaware Attorney General Jane Brady.

South Carolina Attorney General Charlie Condon, RAGA's first chairmen.

Ohio Attorney General Betty Montgomery.

Nebraska Attorney General Don Stenberg.

Known Contributers

Due to a lack of any public disclosure, a complete list of contributers is not available:

Aetna U.S. Healthcare

Brown & Williamson

Microsoft Corporation

National Rifle Association

SBC Communications Inc.

External links

March 30, 2000, Attorneys General Raise Funds for GOP, by George Lardner Jr. and Susan Schmidt, Washington Post.

May 11, 2001, Corporate AGs: Attorney, Restrain Thyself!', by Andrew Wheat, The Texas Observer.

July 17, 2003, GOP Attorneys General Asked For Corporate Contributions, by R. Jeffrey Smith and Tania Branigan, Washington Post.

More than Markets: A Comparative Study of Nine Conservative Parties on Climate Change

Sondre Båtstrand

Article first published online: 12 AUG 2015

DOI: 10.1111/polp.12122

Issue Politics & Policy

Politics & Policy

Volume 43, Issue 4, pages 538–561, August 2015=