A federal court ruled Monday against Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring’s attempt to hide information from a Washington, D.C., think tank seeking information about the state’s role in an attorney general-led climate crusade.
The Competitive Enterprise Institute sued Herring in 2018 for attempting to evade a Freedom of Information Act case seeking reasons why the Democratic attorney general denied requests for information confirming the state’s authority to hire privately funded lawyers.
CEI’s Chris Horner argued state law only allows assistant attorneys general to be paid through taxpayer expense.
Herring applied for a program in September 2017 that was designed to hire privately funded lawyers to work on environmental litigation through a group founded by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Herring’s office claimed it reviewed Virginia’s laws and found no problems with the arrangement.
Horner argued that Virginia’s code not only does not authorize such a deal but prohibits taxpayer dollars from going to private attorneys.
Horner’s CEI sought the records underlying this assertion. The office of the attorney general (OAG) insists it has none.
Bloomberg Philanthropies launched a $6 million campaign to embed experienced attorneys in state attorney’s offices across the country to push back against Trump administration efforts to roll back environmental regulations.
Bloomberg, a billionaire politician turned environmentalist, is considering running for president in 2020 as a Democrat.
“Today the Court rightly ruled that Attorney General Herring and his staff must not be permitted to avoid legitimate scrutiny under Virginia’s FOIA law by simply asserting ‘Trust us,’” Horner said in a press statement Monday night. “Unfortunately, as we informed the Court, this OAG has a history of providing false ‘No Records’ responses when records do in fact exist.”
Herring has not responded to The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment about what the court’s ruling means for his office.
One of the legal fellows New York City hired was heavily involved in New York’s lawsuit targeting ExxonMobil’s climate record.
A special assistant in the New York AG’s office signed a lawsuit in October alleging Exxon misled investors about the risks Exxon’s oil products pose to the environment.
The assistant is one of several lawyers associated with Bloomberg Philanthropies the state hired through the NYU State Environmental Energy Impact Center.
Read more at Daily Caller
Screw the Sierra Club and all its members and supporters just look at the useful idiots in the picture above fool enough to beleive everything their told by the M.S. Media
Chris,,,, From your statement above, you are a lukewarmist.
Please read this: http://nov79.com/gbwm/gbwm.html
The only reason for Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring to resist turning over documents is that he has something to hide. Bloomberg’s $6 million campaign to embed experienced attorneys in state attorney’s offices is illegal and he should be prosecuted.
CEI one of the good guys against the Eco-Nazis and their trying to hide just so they can file a frivolous lawsuit over something thats only happening in their minds and Herring just another con man
The 1970’s had two energy crises; one in 1973 and the other in 1979. Both were caused by oil export curtailment by Arab nations; the first was voluntary, the second was caused by revolution. Either way, the industrial world faced some bleak facts: they were addicted to oil and reliant on foreign, possibly hostile, non-democratic regimes. The USA shifted its foreign policy; flexed its muscles, forged allies, and fought wars to keep their energy supply safe. Communism was no longer the top priority; energy was king. But how costly this was. Not only was defending their energy expensive, but massive capital losses were feeding unsavory allies. Oil would not last for long, and nuclear bombs were a nightmarish worry. Economic vulnerability had been exposed, and world peace was threatened. Continuing down this avenue was fraught with uncertainty and probable doom. A change in course was needed. Long-term control of one’s energy supply was of critical importance and deemed top priority; but how and what to do? The obvious answer was to produce energy at home and encourage citizens to demand it.
Along came the environmental movement with their anti-industrialization agenda touting their poster child of world doom, CO2. Carbon dioxide was a proven greenhouse gas. This was an opportunity that couldn’t be passed up. Devise a formidable foe, then work toward defeating the monster while secretly fulfilling an ulterior motive. Indoctrinate its citizens of the dangers of global warming and sell them on the idea that higher energy costs would save the earth from run-away warming should we hit the tipping point. Set a reasonable time schedule to completely wean themselves off the monster or suffer the consequences of rising sea levels and flooding of coastal cities, drought, wild fires, crop failures, and economic Armageddon. Demonizing oil was the mission and promoting alternative energy the solution.
To get the world citizens on track, a coordinated intergovernmental plan to control and direct information and miss-information was needed. Propaganda was critical. Encourage the world to fund a world governing body which both studies and builds infrastructure for the world. Hence, the UN voted to create the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in the 1980’s. Their mandate: to study the anthropogenic effects of global warming. This meant studying the effects of man caused factors, while ignoring the natural cycles in nature. Green-house gases like CO2 and CH4 (methane) do cause some warming of the climate, but ignoring natural cycles allows any temperature trends to be directly associated with the man-caused effects. Third world countries must be helped or their reliance on oil will grow. Rewarding compliant behavior an important motivator. Well respected institutions will be controlled through grants. Those that comply will grow while those who disappoint will be ignored. When the data doesn’t fit the models, simply adjust the past temperatures and blame it on calibration differences. The IPCC will control everything; the information, the investments, the research, the universities, the scientists, the institutions like NASA and NOAA. Climate scare will motivate citizens to take action. Anyone not supporting the movement will be discredited and shunned like a heretic.
Hopefully domestic economies will benefit from the construction explosion and long-term employment surge of maintaining the grid. World peace would be at hand by weakening the enemies. The plan has been unfolding for 30 years and technology has reached the point of economic feasibility… hopefully. Now comes the real push to build the domestic energy system.