Investigate Fossil Fuel Front Groups Corrupting Federal Judiciary

Today I take pen in hand to write and urge you to take corrective action in the war on climate litigation: The House Judiciary Committee is simply targeting the wrong organizations. While Republican in the House subpoena climate accountability lawyers and investigate the Environmental Law Institute, the Law and Economics Center at George Mason University is running expense-paid judicial seminars funded by ExxonMobil and the Charles Koch Foundation — both defendants in active climate litigation. The LEC has openly told the Koch Foundation its goal is to give judges a "healthy skepticism of the invocations of science" in lawsuits. That is textbook judicial influence, and it deserves a subpoena. It’s also horrendously dangerous, with our increasingly unstable climate, and fossil fuel companies seeking legal immunity from lawsuits. Chris Wright, now Energy Secretary, spoke at three private LEC seminars — twice in June 2021 and once in June 2024 — presenting climate skepticism directly to federal judges while his company, Liberty Energy, was suing the SEC over climate regulations. Leonard Leo, architect of the rightwing judicial takeover, is linked to groups that have attacked ELI for doing far less. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse has already raised the alarm with the judicial conference. The committee should follow that lead: investigate the LEC, and similar false fronts for the fossil fuel industry; subpoena their donor records, and expose who is actually corrupting judicial education on climate science. We can’t wait and allow for the corporate grip on our courts to be absolute. Thank you.