‘This Is Lawfare’: AGs Draw Attention to Leftist Group Training Judges to Push Climate Alarmism

Twenty-three Republican state attorneys general sent a letter to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, demanding the EPA investigate funding for the Environmental Law Institute, which the AGs said attempts to “rig the courts” against American energy.

The EPA confirmed receipt and reiterated Zeldin’s dedication to cutting down on wasteful spending from the previous administration. The EPA canceled two grants to the Environmental Law Institute in May.

“It’s outrageous that the Biden EPA has funneled over a million taxpayer dollars to an organization actively working to sway the judiciary in favor of climate nuisance lawsuits,” Jason Isaac, founder and CEO of the American Energy Institute, told The Daily Signal in a statement Tuesday.

“The Environmental Law Institute’s Climate Judiciary Project isn’t education; it’s a backdoor lobbying effort targeting judges with materials crafted by climate activists and litigation insiders,” Isaac added. “Taxpayer dollars should never bankroll a scheme to rig the courts against American energy. This is the kind of corruption President [Donald] Trump was elected to root out, and it’s time for the EPA to stop the grants.”

The Climate Judiciary Project aims “to provide neutral, objective information to the judiciary about the science of climate change as understood by the expert scientific community and relevant to current and future litigation,” according to its website. Since its creation in 2018, the project estimates that it has hosted more than 50 events and trained more than 2,000 judges.

According to its 2024 financial statements, the Environmental Law Institute received approximately 13% of its revenue from EPA awards in 2023, and 8.4% of its revenue from them in 2024.

The AGs letter claims the project aims to “lobby judges in order to make climate change policy through the courts.”

The Environmental Law Institute pushed back on the letter’s claims.

“Far from ‘radical’, the programs in which the Climate Judiciary Project (CJP) participates are no different than other judicial education programs, providing evidence-based training on legal and scientific topics that judges voluntarily choose to attend,” Nick Collins, an ELI spokesman, told The Daily Signal in a statement Tuesday. “Moreover, CJP is funded by non-government sources and EPA’s grants to ELI are not related to judicial education. For over 30 years, ELI has partnered with the EPA and supported its efforts to provide Americans clean air and water.”

‘The Science Is Not Settled’

“The science is not settled here, despite what the Left would have us believe, Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, who led the effort, told The Daily Signal in a phone call Tuesday. “To me, this is no different from the COVID vaccine. Everyone was told, ‘Well we have to do this, the science, the science, the science!’ and now we know, looking back, that maybe ‘the science’ wasn’t right.”

Knudsen said he suspects the Environmental Law Institute played a role in the ideological capture of his state’s judiciary.

“The Left has dominated the Montana judiciary for decades,” he said.

He mentioned the case Held v. Montana (2024), in which Montana’s Supreme Court ruled that the state constitution’s “right to a clean and healthful environment” invalidated a state law barring the consideration of greenhouse gas emissions and climate impacts in environmental reviews.

“I certainly suspect some members of our state supreme court, that ultimately ruled on that case, might have attended” some Environmental Law Institute events, Knudsen said. “They put on over 50 events and they had over 2,000 judges attend, I think the odds are pretty good.”

The Environmental Law Institute celebrated the ruling.

Knudsen said these issues “should be discussed on a policy level in the halls of Congress and the U.S. Senate, or in the various state legislatures.”

“This is lawfare,” he added. “This is the Left not being able to get their agenda passed through the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Senate, so what do they do? They shift their tactics and they run to their buddies on the judiciary.”

The EPA’s Response

When approached for comment, an EPA spokesperson confirmed receiving the letter and told The Daily Signal the agency will respond through the appropriate channels.

“Since day one, the Trump EPA has been crystal clear that the Biden-Harris administration shouldn’t have forced their radical agenda of wasteful DEI programs and ‘environmental justice’ preferencing on the EPA’s core mission of protecting human health and the environment,” the spokesperson said.

The EPA terminated two grants to the Environmental Law Institute on May 12 before the full obligated amount had been paid, according to records on USA Spending.gov.

Zeldin has repeatedly emphasized Biden EPA spending on climate grants. He confronted a New York Times reporter on articles claiming that he had “no evidence” of abuse in the grants.

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