In the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on state climate litigation, longtime environmental activist Bill McKibben provided a helpful reminder about who is really driving frivolous cases against energy companies in state courts across the country. 

McKibben’s recent New York Magazine piece documents many of these actors, including 350.org, the Rockefeller Family Fund, and the Rockefeller-funded Center for Climate Integrity (CCI). CCI in particular has emerged as the nexus for lobbying efforts, research, events, and social media campaigns aimed at pressuring states and municipalities to sue energy companies for the costs of climate change. 

As EID Climate has shown previously, a network of Rockefeller organizations manufactured the entire climate litigation effort from the start by financially propping up various individuals and organizations in the activist, media, legal, PR and academic spheres. The origins of this campaign go back more than a decade to a June 2012 conference in La Jolla, California where activists began forming a unified strategy to attempt to mirror the lawsuits against big tobacco companies.  

Since then, supporters of the campaign aimed to recruit state attorneys general and other public officials to file lawsuits and they set out to “delegitimize [ExxonMobil] as a political actor” by “creating scandal” through “rapid response … joint social media and coordinated organizing and media pushes.” And it’s all been funded by wealthy foundations, primarily a network of Rockefeller organizations that stood up the entire campaign. 

Read more here.

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