As municipalities and state governments pursue multibillion-dollar climate accountability litigation against major fossil fuel producers, conservative advocacy organizations are mounting an aggressive campaign to undermine the credibility of such claims before the federal judiciary. These groups allege that plaintiff's attorneys are coordinating with non-profit judicial education organizations to prejudice judges against energy defendants. However, opposing counsel argue that the defendants themselves are the true architects of improper judicial influence, citing among their evidence judicial seminars featuring the current energy secretary in his prior capacity as a hydraulic fracturing executive.
The House judiciary committee, led by chairman Jim Jordan, has launched a formal investigation into the Environmental Law Institute and its Climate Judiciary Project. Documents obtained by the Guardian reveal that Sher Edling, a law firm representing over two dozen plaintiffs in climate deception litigation, has received substantial funding from BP, Chevron, and Koch Industries—all defendants in the underlying cases. A spokesperson for the firm characterized the committee's inquiry as a deliberate distraction from industry efforts to shape the judiciary through alternative judicial education programming operated by the Law and Economics Center at George Mason University's Antonin Scalia School of Law.