Democrat challengers aspiring to become the top lawyers in their states have received financial boosts from Tom Steyer, a billionaire investor and environmental activist who many believe is helping drive the recent wave of climate change lawsuits struggling to convince judges to punish the energy industry.
This year, Steyer, his wife Kat Taylor, and a business associate have contributed more than $15,000 to the campaign of January Contreras, a former county and state prosecutor challenging Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican viewed as a small-business ally. Steyer and Taylor each donated the maximum $5,100, while Fleur Fairman — an early figure at Steyer’s hedge fund Farallon Capital — contributed another $5,100. Fairman also donated $25,000 to Steyer’s NextGen Climate Action PAC in 2014.
Contreras has made environmental protection a clear campaign priority. In an Earth Day op-ed, she vowed to oppose the “profits before planet” approach of the current administration, writing that she would “educate the federal government about our unique landscape because no one knows Arizona like Arizonans.”
If elected, Contreras could pursue a climate lawsuit similar to those filed in other jurisdictions, which claim oil companies created the “public nuisance” of global warming. The main defendants in these cases — Exxon, Chevron, BP, ConocoPhillips, and Royal Dutch Shell — have convinced federal judges in San Francisco and New York City to dismiss the suits as improper attempts to have the judiciary regulate global energy policy.
Private law firms, including Hagens Berman and Sher Edling, have led these lawsuits on contingency, potentially earning around 20% of any recovery. A Denver personal injury lawyer stands to make a similar share from Boulder’s case.
Although attorney general races haven’t historically been a major focus of Steyer’s massive political spending, the Daily Caller reported that he may have coordinated with former New York AG Eric Schneiderman on Exxon investigations. A leaked memo from Steyer-linked entities — Fahr LLC, NextGen, and the TomKat Foundation — suggested a strategy to “weaken the political influence of the oil industry by leveraging the Exxon investigation” and proposed engaging city attorneys, asking, “Funding needed to develop case??”
Energy in Depth, a project of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, also noted a series of timely donations from Steyer’s groups. On July 17, 2017, Marin County and Imperial Beach, California, announced climate lawsuits; within two weeks, Steyer’s NextGen donated $30,000 to the Marin County Democratic Committee and $114,000 to the San Diego County Democratic Party. Later that year, after San Francisco filed its lawsuit, Steyer contributed $30,000 to a ballot initiative backed by the late Mayor Ed Lee. Before Oakland filed suit, Steyer gave $500,000 to local education and youth programs tied to city initiatives.
Steyer is also supporting other Democrat AG hopefuls this cycle: Joshua Kaul in Wisconsin received $10,000, and Sean Shaw in Florida received $3,000. Kaul argues that current AG Brad Schimel “puts the interests of polluters ahead of Wisconsinites,” while Shaw has said he would file lawsuits “whenever he can,” including potential climate cases.
Critics of these climate lawsuits include the Trump administration and 15 Republican attorneys general who have filed friend-of-the-court briefs opposing them. Only four Democrat AGs — from New York, Washington, New Jersey, and California — have signed the latest amicus brief supporting the litigation. So far, Rhode Island’s Peter Kilmartin remains the only AG to file a suit, though private firms funding the cases could enable others to follow.
“The AG has a significant role to move us forward or backwards in the battle against climate change. I choose forward,” Contreras tweeted recently.
A report from the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) argues that special interests are using state AGs to push private climate agendas. CEI claims donors are coordinating meetings between plaintiffs’ lawyers and AGs and channeling money through nonprofits. It cites the NYU School of Law’s State Energy and Environmental Impact Center — funded by nearly $6 million from Bloomberg Philanthropies — which places special environmental prosecutors in 10 Democratic AG offices.
“This is the most dangerous example of a modus operandi we have found,” CEI’s report states. “It uses nonprofit organizations as pass-through entities by which donors can support elected officials to, in turn, use their offices to advance a specific set of policies favored by said donors. It also uses resources that legislatures will not provide and that donors cannot legally provide directly.”