Group of Republican attorneys general blocking climate laws funded by oil firms and dark money

A powerful group that boasts 28 Republican attorney generals, including many who have sided with oil and gas firms to block states seeking compensation for weather disasters caused by climate change, has raked in millions of dollars from fossil fuel giants and a dark money fund tied to Federalist Society co-chair, Leonard Leo.

The Republican Attorneys General Association (Raga) has roped in about $5.8m from oil and gas giants and their allied lobbying groups since Joe Biden was elected president in 2020, campaign finance records show.

Further, Raga has received a whopping $18.8m from the Leo-linked Concord Fund since 2014 when the dark money non-profit first registered with the IRS, according to the liberal leaning Center for Media and Democracy.

During the first half of 2024, the Concord Fund was the largest donor to Raga, plowing $2m into the group’s coffers. The Concord Fund, formerly called the Judicial Crisis Network, spent millions of dollars supporting Donald Trump’s three conservative supreme court nominees and is led by Leo’s longtime close associate Carrie Severino.

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Labelled by watchdogs and critics as a “pay to play” operation for often supporting lawsuits by major donors, Raga has garnered six figure checks from fossil fuel giants such as Koch Industries, which is chaired by billionaire Charles Koch, the American Petroleum Institute and the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers.

While oil and gas monies have been pouring into Raga’s coffers, Republican attorney generals have emerged as major allies of the oil industry on litigation to beat back climate change lawsuits and environmental rules

Raga, which bills its mission as “Defending the Rule of Law. Keeping America Safe,” drew fire during Trump’s fight to thwart Biden from assuming office when an affiliate, the Rule of Law Defense Fund, spent $150,000 on robocalls to boost attendance at Trump’s January 6 rally. The robocalls urged “patriots” to come to the rally and said: “We will march to the Capitol building and call on Congress to stop the steal.”

Launched in 1999, Raga has raised and spent tens of millions of dollars to help elect conservative attorney generals – including many who have filed corporate-friendly litigation.

Key Democrats in Congress and energy analysts voice sharp criticism of Raga’s role in defending fossil fuel interests at a time when climate-related disasters are rising, and Raga is raking in millions of dollars from oil and gas interests and dark money groups

“Raga is one tentacle of the effort by rightwing billionaires and the fossil fuel industry to capture our courts and government to the benefit of big corporate interests,” Sheldon Whitehouse, Rhode Island Democratic senator, said.

“With big oil facing the possibility of real accountability in honest courtrooms, obedient Raga attorneys general are rushing in to provide taxpayer-funded legal services for their polluter funders. It’s a corrupt scheme.”

Energy experts too see GOP attorneys general working in tandem with the oil industry to block major environmental rules.

“Red state AGs are trying to put up a brick wall against important new environmental regulations,” Michael Gerrard, who heads the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, told the Guardian “Since the beginning of the Obama administration, everything that Democrats do to curb fossil fuel emissions or fight climate change is challenged by red states and industry.”

Gerrard’s point is underscored by several recent legal moves by Republican attorneys general who belong to Raga and have been busy this year filing legal actions to defend fossil fuel interests in key battles.

In late May, for instance, 19 Raga members asked the supreme court to halt actions by Democratic attorneys general in five states including California, Connecticut and Minnesota which brought cases in state courts seeking billions of dollars in damages from oil and gas companies due to climate change-related weather disasters such as wildfires, severe storms and floods.

The Raga members’ argument, which experts have said is unusual, comes as dozens of local and state governments have filed lawsuits that allege fossil fuel businesses for years deceived the public about their products’ risks which contributed to climate crisis.

The Republican attorneys general argue only federal agencies can regulate interstate gas emissions and that the state suits will increase costs for consumers in other states.

“They do not have authority to dictate our national energy policy,” Steve Marshall, the Alabama attorney general, said in a statement announcing the 19 state lawsuit. “If the Supreme Court lets them continue, California and its allies will imperil access to affordable energy for every American.”

Earlier in May, 27 Republican attorneys general and industry trade groups filed lawsuits to block the Environmental Protection Agency from going forward with a new Biden administration rule that requires coal-fired power plants and new natural gas plants to make large scale reductions in carbon emissions.

The EPA rule, which had just been approved in April, requires existing coal-fired plants and many new ones to cut their emissions by 90% by 2032 which could require billions of dollars in new expenditures.

Furthermore, this April, 20 Republican attorneys general filed a petition asking the supreme court to intervene in a major lawsuit brought by Honolulu against Sunoco and slated to go to trial later this year that seeks billions of dollars in damages from major oil companies for misleading the public about climate crisis-related disasters.

The move by the Republican attorneys general came as several oil and gas giants including the powerful American Petroleum Institute filed similar petitions with the high court.

The growing volume of litigation by GOP attorneys general attacking environmental rules and trying to thwart climate change lawsuits, dismays energy experts and watchdog groups.

“What the oil industry is trying to do is to block efforts to hold them accountable for their actions, and undo the laws that would hold them accountable,” said Joe Romm, a senior research fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media.

“The oil industry is a lot like their pal Donald Trump. They both believe they should be above the law.”

Long time Raga watchers concur.

“It should come as no surprise that state attorneys general whose electoral campaigns are buttressed by the fossil-fuel funded Raga are using their public offices to attack efforts to mitigate climate change despite how rising temperatures are harming their states,” said Lisa Graves, the executive director of the progressive watchdog group True North Research and the co-founder of Court Accountability.

More broadly, Graves lambasted Raga as a “pay-to-play group that has received millions via Leonard Leo, the rightwing lawyer who orchestrated the packing of the US supreme court”.

In a similar vein, Jim Jones, the former Republican Idaho attorney general, told the Guardian last year that he was troubled by Ragas conservative direction.

“They’ve become political operatives instead of the people in their states to safeguard the rule of law. They seem to be pandering to rightwing extremist groups to gain office in the first place and then to retain office.”