State Department email records show that environmental activists, who have denied operating as foreign agents in response to congressional inquiries, partnered with Obama administration officials to advance climate change policies that were beneficial to China and detrimental to the United States, according to energy policy analysts and attorneys who have reviewed the electronic correspondence.
The Treasury and State Departments have failed to respond to open records requests seeking “certain correspondence and related records discussing Russian funding of environmental pressure groups’ advocacy in the United States,” according to lawsuits filed today against Treasury and Monday against State.
Well-endowed environmental advocacy groups have exploited the “perverse incentives” of federal laws with “sue and settle” arrangements that enrich trial lawyers at the expense of taxpayers while undercutting successful conservation efforts, according to congressional figures and attorneys who favor litigation reform.
A rarely used but potent anti-regulatory tool could be used to undo land use restrictions the Obama administration imposed on more than 72 million acres of western lands, according to attorneys and public policy analysts.
