Rhode Island’s Lawsuit vs Big Oil is a Donor-Funded Assault on Families

The administrative state is at it again. The unchecked and ongoing assault on families, motorists, and homeowners – by our own government – could soon heap even more costs upon all of us.

It’s called “law-fare”. And similar to America’s Civil War … states are again at war with each other … albeit, in the courts. But instead of “blue vs grey”, today it’s “blue vs red”. Instead bloody killing fields, the battle-front is now lawyered-up courtrooms.

While Ocean Staters still struggle to recover from the pandemic lockdowns, rampant national and local inflation continues to drain our budgets. And now, with new federal Labor Department stats that seem to indicate the economy is slowing, even good-paying jobs may soon become more scarce.

The news for families gets even worse when it comes to energy. Not only do Ocean State officials want to reduce our choices as energy consumers, with impossible to achieve “green” mandates, they also seek to artificially raise electricity and gasoline prices across the board.

One tactic used by money-hungry blue state governments is to file lawsuits against petroleum companies in their own state courts. However, red states are fighting back. A complaint filed by the attorney general of Alabama, along with 18 other red states, is asking the Supreme Court to end these bogus lawsuits. The motion names the blue states of Calif., Conn., Minn., N.J. and our own state of R.I. as five states trying to extract enormous payouts that would lead to disastrous policies and increased energy prices on a nationwide basis.

Their “law-fare” game is simple. By filing lawsuits against these energy producers, alleging damages from a contrived “climate crisis,” these five states hope to find a new payouts of cash … as they did from the massive cigarette and Google lawsuits. By using state rather than federal courts, they can keep their cases in courtrooms that are too often compliant to the wishes of their respective state officials.

In short, their goal is to manipulate the justice system and the Courts to drive a national policy agenda away from fossil fuels … by punishing oil producers.

This is not speculation. The transparency group Energy Policy Advocates exposed nationally, which our Center then publicized locally, how in July 2019, state officials joined climate change activists and funders in Pocantico, NY at a secret forum hosted by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. The purpose of the cabal’s meet-up was “to strategize together on the most promising ways to accelerate the pace of implementation” of “increasingly ambitious climate goals,” as the draft agenda promised. “The group will also discuss how state (legal) action can influence and underpin future federal action.”

The conclusion of this “State Action on Climate Change” meeting was to follow Rhode Island’s lead and to abuse court systems across America, because their legislative attempts to fund their radical green agenda and other pet government projects had largely failed in their states.

Rhode Island bragged about being the first state to file a climate change lawsuit against major national energy companies; its lawsuit was filed a year before the cabal met in New York. The R.I. official in attendance, then state DEM Director Janet Coit, was well positioned to discuss state efforts to secure what she called a “sustainable funding stream” in the course of “suing big oil for R.I. damages in state court.” These actual notes from the conspirators’ meeting were revealed after an open records request by the non-profit group, Energy Policy Advocates.

This cynical admission behind closed doors is a far cry from their rhetoric about holding corporations accountable for “catastrophic consequences” of use of their products. It is all about the money … and families, and all consumers of gasoline and electricity, will be forced to pay for it.

California, one of the five states named in the Supreme Court filing, has several climate lawsuits against energy companies in motion by plaintiffs ranging from the state to municipalities and tribal entities. The attorney general of the Golden State, Rob Bonta, was chillingly explicit in a recent interview in which he described their lawsuits as an attempt to “open up the floodgates for others to join in suing energy companies. “More is better,” he said, as part of creating a “broader ecosystem of impact litigation” – in other words, litigation whose purpose is to change society as a whole. He claims the change will result in energy companies ceasing to invest in fossil fuel development – but consumers, in reality, would be the ones who would suffer apocalyptic “impact” on their daily lives.

The evil genius of their scheme. With illegitimate motives, state Attorneys General sues oil companies, demanding hearings and trials withing their respective states, in order to have the best chance to extract revenues and policy changes – via court approved settlements or rulings – that they failed to secure during the legitimate legislative process. This type of “sue and settle” scheme should be unconstitutional, as it bypasses the democratic legislative process and is a complete bastardization of the judicial system.

And, it’s a lose-lose proposition for citizens. Instead of taxpayers being forced to pay to implement the radical green agenda, where elected officials might be at least be held accountable for related enabling legislation … in this case, property and vehicle owners will bear the entire burden, when lawsuit settlement costs are passed-down by energy companies to consumers, after unaccountable judges pass-down pre-rigged and “bought” rulings.

“Bought?” Law Enforcement for Rent? These schemes to subvert democracy are often paid for by deep-pocket donors who want to advance a radical climate change agenda. This is not how public policy and the courts are supposed to work. In many states, donors even fund special climate attorneys who are actually placed in the offices of state Attorneys General. Special interest groups must not be allowed to directly fund climate policy – or any policy – through any State office.

If Alabama’s Supreme Court appeal fails, and if the five blue states are victorious in their lawsuits, all families and business will suffer the consequences via higher energy costs and dangerously low levels of grid capacity and reliability.

Say goodbye to electricity coming on with the flip of a switch, or to going out and starting your car whenever desired, or to buying the latest iPhone every year. Forget affordable flights on demand. Airlines have already started to add a new fee to tickets to cover their increased costs of compliance with “sustainable” fuel regulations, and others will surely follow if these state lawsuits are allowed to continue.

The conveniences of modern daily life that we take for granted will become unavailable or unaffordable for most Americans. Imagine the hypocrisy of imposing burdensome energy mandates on the average Joe, while those who contrive these green lawfare schemes famously fly all over the world on private jets.

There is still time. The 2018 Rhode Island lawsuit was announced by former Governor Gina Raimondo, former Attorney General Peter Kilmartin, and radical environmental US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. Neither of these two state officials are still in office and I call upon the current Governor and Attorney General to pull Rhode Island out of this lawsuit, which is not theirs in the first place.

And, there is precedent for my call to action for our Rhode Island AG to withdraw. In 2022, the new Virginia Attorney General dropped his state out of a coalition of states that challenged climate alarmism by the federal government.

It will be interesting to see if Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha files an official response to the Alabama complaint. So far, the AG has not revealed his plans, but the August 21 deadline is fast approaching. Opinion | Alabama Sues to Stop California’s Climate-Change Power Grab (msn.com)

To protect families and businesses from unintended harsh energy consequences, and to maintain the abundant and affordable energy supplies that Ocean Staters need to thrive, Neronha should seriously consider dropping Rhode Island’s lawsuit against energy companies.

Withdrawal by Neronha will also save taxpayer dollars, as the plaintiff states, including Rhode Island are paying big dollars to insider law firms to represent them in the filing and conduct of these lawsuits.

Instead of filing an official response to the Alabama lawsuit, Neronha should formally withdraw from the case. It is only common-sense to understand that this lawsuit will not punish energy companies, as was intended, but rather, will punish state residents by imposing a form of backdoor taxation.

Another false narrative. The deception of it all is that the massive amount of money our state is seeking is not intended to be used to mitigate the effects of a forever-changing climate. It’s not about climate change … it’s about money!

For example, take our state gas tax. The Reason Foundation calculated in 2020 that 37.1% of Rhode Island’s then-$.34 gallon gas tax (raised to $.37 in 2023) was diverted to fund other parts of the government. Rest assured that significant amounts of any energy lawsuit settlement funds will be spent to fund insider cronies for a bevy of wasteful government boondoggles.

This blatant money grab scheme, via the Courts, where legislative efforts have failed, must be exposed. If the lawsuit is not ended, and the people become aware that they will bear the costs, a costly political price may be paid.

Given recent Supreme Court rulings that diminish the authority of the Administrative State, there is hope that Alabama’s case will prevail, even though most legal observers see it as an uphill battle.

However, R.I. Attorney General Neronha himself, with a stroke of his pen, can immediately curb this shameless – and likely unconstitutional – attempt by his predecessor to use the court system to enact costly green policies, while filling state coffers with illicitly obtained funds.

States engaged in law-fare with other states. This time, the blue side should not prevail in the courts.

Mike Stenhouse is CEO of Rhode Island’s only conservative think tank, the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity. He earned an economics degree from Harvard University and is a former major league baseball player for the Red Sox, Twins, and Expos.