Report: New Documents Confirm: ‘Climate RICO’ AGs Attempting to Write Themselves Out of Transparency Laws to Hide Abusive Campaign

For Immediate Release: July 6, 2016 Contact: Craig Richardson [email protected] 703-981-5553

New Documents Confirm: “Climate RICO” AGs Attempting to Write Themselves Out of Transparency Laws to Hide Abusive Campaign Washington, DC – New responses from state Attorneys General offices (OAGs) obtained by the Energy & Environment Legal Institute (E&E Legal) and the Free Market Environmental Law Clinic (FME Law) confirm that the coalition of Democratic Attorneys General using racketeering laws to investigate universities, climate scientists, free market think tanks and energy companies are hiding behind a contract with each other — also apparently with outside activists helping the campaign — to avoid releasing public records relating to their pursuit of political opponents. This confirms suggestions in prior emails, obtained under state open records laws, that the AGs had entered what they are calling a Common Interest Agreement (CIA), with green activists and other AGs, and are using this contract of nondisclosure among themselves to keep public records regarding their RICO push from the public. CIAs are common instruments, but what the AGs and green groups have attempted is not; nor is keeping the pact itself from the public normal.  To be legitimate, parties to a common interest agreement must have imminent litigation, a clear scope and clearly shared interests.  Instead, documents obtained to date show that these AGs and their green-group colleagues with inherently disparate interests have entered not a legitimate CIA, but a pact of secrecy, covering broad topics, not specific matters, simply to avoid scrutiny of otherwise public records relating to their extraordinarily controversial abuse of political opponents’ First Amendment rights. “We have confirmed that the Democratic AGs are citing a Common Interest Agreement to avoid releasing crucial information to the public, as they continue their abuse of power”, said David W. Schnare, E&E Legal General Counsel. “The earlier draft we obtained showed the desire to exempt AGs’ correspondence, which are deemed public records by their legislatures, from open records laws if they related not just to defense of the Obama administration’s EPA rules, but to investigations and nearly anything else they might not want released involving “fossil fuels”, “renewable energy”, or “climate”.”  It appears these terms survived in a new agreement. This pact of secrecy, written by New York’s Eric Schneiderman, promises to alert each party about, and force requesting parties to sue for satisfaction of, public (or media) records requests seeking information about

Newsweek: ‘Does Exxon Have a Constitutional Right to Deny Climate Change?’

http://www.newsweek.com/exxon-fossil-fuels-climate-change-denial-476807…

NY Post: ‘The imploding cabal to criminalize climate dissent’

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and his fellow greenies are getting a lesson about the dangers of believing their own propaganda.

These know-it-alls claim there’s a “consensus” on climate change and what to do about it. And they believe that consensus is so broad that even prosecuting dissent would be a slam dunk. Claude Walker’s monumental crash-and-burn this week blew up that theory. Schneiderman and his ideological pals, from Al Gore to Hillary Clinton, would be wise to take note.

Walker is the attorney general for the US Virgin Islands who launched a ludicrous racketeering probe of ExxonMobil and sent sweeping subpoenas to the company and the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Ostensibly, his suspicion, like that of a similar probe by Schneiderman, was that Exxon fraudulently downplayed climate change’s dangers to the public and its investors.

But Walker sought Exxon’s correspondence with some 90 groups suspected of the “crime” of questioning climate-change orthodoxy. The obvious point was to make these groups think twice about the findings their research produces and their positions on the issue. It was also meant to scare off donors, like Exxon.

Yet Wednesday, Walker withdrew his Exxon subpoena. He’d already taken back his order to CEI.

So his probe, it seems, is kaput.

Walker & Co. miscalculated. Schneiderman launched his investigation in November. In March, he held a presser with attorneys general from nearly 20 other states, promising a cooperative effort against Exxon. Al Gore even appeared.

Yet only a few AGs actually launched probes and issued subpoenas. Massachusetts AG Maura Healey this week delayed her own subpoena of Exxon. Schneiderman is quickly becoming odd man out.

No surprise: The climate-change “consensus” isn’t as widespread as greenies claim.

Indeed, the claim itself is just another attempt to silence debate. The science is settled, they say. Anyone who disagrees must be a kook, a “denier.”

Schneiderman’s move and the March presser may have won plaudits from the radicals, who hope to end use of all fossil fuel. But it also drew outrage from First Amendment champions and those who saw the probes as an abuse of office.…

Dem AG backs down in Exxon climate fight

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/dem-ag-backs-down-in-exxon-climate-fight/article/2595284

A group of Democratic attorneys general have suffered another blow in their bid to find oil-giant Exxon Mobil guilty of fraud in a highly-politicized climate change investigation.
A court document issued Wednesday evening says Claude Walker, attorney general of the U.S. Virgin Islands, has agreed to withdraw his subpoena demanding documents and emails from the oil company related to its discussion of the risks posed by climate change.…

Skeptics Win! AG pulls #ExxonKnew subpoena

Dem AG backs down in Exxon climate fight

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/dem-ag-backs-down-in-exxon-climate-fight/article/2595284

Fossil Fuel Advocate Alex Epstein Challenges Al Gore to $100,000 Debate

http://climatechangedispatch.com/fossil-fuel-advocate-alex-epstein-challenges-al-gore-to-100000-debate/

This past March, Al Gore proudly stood shoulder to shoulder with more than a dozen state attorneys general to declare war on climate skeptics. Led by New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, the group (“AG’s United for Clean Power”) vowed to prosecute companies like ExxonMobil that have “misled…the public on the impact of climate change.”

Shortly after the press conference, Virgin Islands Attorney General Claude Walker served a subpoena on the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), demanding a decade’s worth of internal communications on climate policy.

The moves against ExxonMobil and CEI are not a complete surprise, given the increasingly shrill attacks against individuals and organizations that question the validity of man-made global warming.

Earlier this year, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch confirmed that the Department of Justice has discussed the possibility of bringing civil actions against climate skeptics.

Tellingly, the witch hunt is now widening. Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey recently demanded that Exxon disclose any and all communications with 12 organizations that advocate for fossil fuels, including the Center for Industrial Progress (CIP) led by Alex Epstein, the author of ‘The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels.’

Epstein, who recently made headlines during a testy Senate committee hearing with Barbara Boxer (D-CA), has chosen to fight back in a rather public manner. He’s formally challengingAl Gore to a public debate on energy policy. And since the former vice president currently receives $100,000 per speaking engagement, Epstein has pledged to deliver the full fee—if Gore will accept.

Unfortunately, Gore has steadfastly refused to debate any critics since the 2006 release of ‘An Inconvenient Truth.’ But Epstein’s challenge carries real currency. Not only does he represent the fossil fuel viewpoint that Gore abhors but he’s also one of the very figures now being publicly flayed by Gore’s cohorts.…

Democrats enshrine prosecution of climate change skeptics in platform

Democrats enshrine prosecution of climate change skeptics in platform

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/06/democrats_enshrine_prosecution_of_climate_change_skeptics_in_platform.html

The entire party has gotten behind the most vigorous assault on free expression since World War II.

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Dem Party Platform Calls For Prosecuting Global Warming Skeptics

Democratic operatives responsible for creating their party’s platform this year have unanimously adopted a provision calling for the Department of Justice to investigate companies who disagree with Democrats on global warming science.

A panel of Democrats voted Friday to approve a final draft of the party’s platform to promote “Progressive Democratic Values,” which apparently includes investigating energy companies who “misled” shareholders about global warming.

The drafting committee, led by DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, has decided to back ongoing investigations by mostly Democratic state attorneys general into ExxonMobil’s stance on global warming.

DNC Platform Calls for ‘Fossil Fuel Investigations’, 100% Renewable Energy

DNC Platform Calls for Fossil Fuel Investigations, 100% Renewable Energy

http://ecowatch.com/2016/06/27/dnc-platform-investigate-exxon/

The committee drafting the Democratic Party platform unanimously voted to…

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