The billionaire-funded climate litigation campaign against American energy companies has accomplished little in the near decade since its start, with the cases mired in procedural issues and setbacks along the way. Recognizing this, it appears the leaders of the Rockefeller foundations – the central strategists and financial backers of the lawsuits – have decided to hedge their lawfare bets and pursue their ultimate goal of taking down the oil and natural gas industry via state legislative efforts.
In recent years, activists have lobbied state legislatures across the country to pass “climate change Superfund” bills, with legislative proposals currently in Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, and Vermont. These bills would extract billions in fines and payments from energy companies in order to compensate states and towns for the economic impacts of climate change.
To attribute shares of global emissions to individual energy companies, the legislation relies on the Richard Heede’s fringe and biased body of climate attribution science that has received funding from the Rockefeller nonprofits to support climate litigation, or for other means of holding companies “accountable.”
If it all sounds familiar, it should – the Superfund legislation has nearly identical aims to climate lawsuits against energy companies and is yet another brainchild of the Rockefeller Family Fund.
Read the full story on EIDClimate.org.
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