Turnaround: House Committee demands “AGs United for Clean Power” documentation
Meanwhile, CEI takes out full page NYT ad decrying AGs’ tactics
I have previously reported that a coalition of 17 state attorney generals has formed (AGs United for Clean Power), which intends to promote the climate change agenda by targeting the fossil fuel industry.
The first victim of the Climate Change purge was the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a non-profit organization that has assisted businesses in countering climate justice activism, when Attorney General Claude E. Walker of the U.S. Virgin Islands issued a subpoena in an attempt uncover the content of CEI’s comprehensive work on climate change policy.
Now, in a dramatic turnaround, thirteen Republican members of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee Republicans sent letters to 17 state attorneys general and eight environmental groups requesting documents related to the groups’ coordinated efforts to deprive companies, nonprofit organizations, scientists and scholars of their First Amendment rights and their ability to fund and conduct scientific research free from intimidation and threats of prosecution.
“The Committee is concerned that these efforts to silence speech are based on political theater rather than legal or scientific arguments, and that they run counter to an attorney general’s duty to serve ‘as the guardian of the legal rights of the citizens’ and to ‘assert, protect, and defend the rights of the people,’” said the letter.
The Republicans also requested information from eight environmental groups and activists pushing for prosecutors to pursue climate skeptics, as shown in emails and documents obtained through open-records requests by the Energy & Environment Legal Institute.
The House letter asks for communications and documents between the attorneys general and environmental groups, including materials related to “the potential prosecution of companies, nonprofit organizations, scientists, or other individuals related to the issue of climate change.”
The letters are available online, but I must admit my favorite is to California Attorney General Kamala Harris (who is likely to be my state’s next U.S. Senator).
Meanwhile, the CEI has taken out a full-page ad in the New York Times decrying the thuggery of Gore’s group.
The ad is entitled: ABUSE OF POWER
The right to speak out is among the most fundamental principles of American democracy. It should never be taken away.
Yet, around the country, a group of state attorneys general have launched a misguided effort to silence the views and voices of those who disagree with them.
….This abuse of power is unacceptable. It is unlawful. And it is un-American.
Regardless of one’s views on climate change, every American should reject the use of government power to harass or silence those who hold differing opinions. This intimidation campaign sets a dangerous precedent and threatens the rights of anyone who disagrees with the government’s position—whether it’s vaccines, GMOs, or any other politically charged issue. Law enforcement officials should never use their powers to silence participants in political debates….
It is good to see that the AGs for Clean Power are not going to be allowed to practice climate justice “lawfare” unchallenged.
(Featured Image from the CEI Color Ad .pdf).
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Comments
My initial reaction to the annoucement by the 17 AGs was that their goal was more intimidation. It felt like they may never follow through on their plan to its conclusion, whether by choice or by court order.
This reaction by Congress may be a good test of whether they are even willing to go a few steps further. It I were a betting person, I’d put money of the volleys back and forth to lose steam, oh, about the second week in November. This is simply a GOTV effort. A created controversy to help some Dems on ballots.
Are not all of the AGs democrats? Why is that not part of the ad? It should be a major point? The lack of that ID makes this effort weak.
AGs deliver one more load of bananas for the Republic.
“…thirteen Republican members of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee Republicans sent letters to 17 state attorneys general and eight environmental groups requesting documents related to the groups’ coordinated efforts to deprive companies, nonprofit organizations, scientists and scholars of their First Amendment rights and their ability to fund and conduct scientific research free from intimidation and threats of prosecution.”
Good for the thirteen! That’s how its done. Punch back, twice as hard.
Flip the script.
Low-density production, non-renewable technology, irregular supply, toxic byproducts hidden in a penumbra, disruption and abortion of flora and fauna in privacy. Neither green nor clean from recovery to reclamation.
Clean energy is an oxymoron. It’s green as in profit.
This is further evidence of Catastrophic Anthropogenic Government Whoring.
While we are at it hybrid technology is a joke. You are just exchanging biodegradable organic liquids for Toxic Heavy Metal and Salt power. And, if we all ate Organic – a lot of people (like poor 3rd world children) would not get to eat at all.
Trump effect..
Punch back twice as hard!
BINGO!
Counter punch them very hard
and then put them in a choke hold till they
turn blue!
The table is turned on them. Lets see how they respond.
If the AGs are working in any coordinated way, they may be in violation of the US Constitution:
“No State shall, without the Consent of Congress…enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State…”
How formal is their relationship in this matter? Has it been set to paper? Is it part of a formal plan? Can merely agreeing to work together be considered an “agreement” between States?
Nonsense. The Attorney General is not the state, and may enter any agreements he likes with anyone he likes. For instance, every state’s AG is a member of the National Association of Attorneys General, and none of them ever asked Congress’s permission to join. Nor has Congress been asked to approve the National Governors’ Association. Only formal binding compacts between states, or between states and foreign governments, need Congressional approval.