Groups critical of climate lawsuits brought against the oil and gas industry are asking two influential House panels to examine the District of Columbia’s use of outside lawyers on environmental cases, adding to recent challenges to climate litigation.
The American Tort Reform Association, the Foundation for American Innovation and the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, sent a letter Wednesday to leaders of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the Committee on the Judiciary urging them to look into D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb’s office practices, including its ties to a lawyer whose salary is paid for by a program funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, Michael Bloomberg’s charitable organization.
That arrangement “raises serious questions about government independence and due process rights, as it appears to target specific industries in an effort to further a political agenda,” the letter says. It notes that Schwalb’s office has a current fellow working as a special assistant attorney general from the energy and environmental impact center at the New York University School of Law and charges that fellows from the Bloomberg-funded center “exercise governmental authority” and “are required to pursue” climate litigation against corporations.
“This set-up allows individuals and organizations to commandeer state and local police powers to target opponents with whom they disagree,” the letter says.
