Ted Cruz claims with out proof that China is funding U.S. local weather lawsuits

States and localities have filed waves of lawsuits towards the fossil gas trade to make power corporations pay for damages that communities face from local weather change. Threatened with doubtlessly large monetary penalties, trade and its supporters just lately turned to the Supreme Court docket for assist — with out success. Now, Sen. Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican, has launched a brand new line of assault that would assist trade by specializing in the cash that is allegedly behind the local weather circumstances.

At a June listening to on Capitol Hill, Cruz accused China of funding the lawsuits so as to cripple U.S. oil and gasoline producers and to strengthen Beijing’s place in world power markets. If the neighborhood court docket circumstances succeed, Cruz mentioned U.S. power manufacturing would fall and costs would rise. “And the biggest winner in all of this: China, who’s paying the bills,” he mentioned.

Nevertheless, Cruz’s workplace has not supplied proof that China or a China-linked nonprofit that Cruz recognized by identify has funded local weather lawsuits in america. A spokesperson for Cruz, Macarena Martinez, supplied NPR with a response from ChatGPT that reads, partly: “What’s not publicly demonstrated (so far) is a direct, documented grant-to-lawsuit pipeline.”

Cruz’s unsubstantiated declare is a part of a yearslong effort by the fossil-fuel trade and its allies to struggle lawsuits that state and native governments have filed towards oil and gasoline corporations, in line with environmental advocates and Democratic lawmakers. The litigation alleges that firms misled the general public for many years concerning the risks of burning fossil fuels, the first explanation for local weather change. The lawsuits search cash to assist communities address the dangers and harms from world warming, together with extra excessive storms, floods and warmth waves.

For years, Republican lawmakers have probed the funding sources for America’s environmental motion. That scrutiny has targeted extra just lately on local weather litigation as circumstances proliferated across the nation. This summer time, a gaggle of Republican state attorneys basic referred to as for a federal legislation to guard power corporations from “activist-funded climate lawsuits.”

Ryan Meyers, basic counsel for the American Petroleum Institute, a commerce group for the oil and gasoline trade, mentioned in a press release to NPR that the local weather lawsuits are “baseless” and a “coordinated campaign” towards power corporations. “Climate policy belongs in Congress,” Meyers mentioned, “not a patchwork of courtrooms.”

The American Petroleum Institute wouldn’t touch upon the report about Cruz’s allegation that China is funding the lawsuits.

John Chung-En Liu, an affiliate professor of sociology at Nationwide Taiwan College who has studied Chinese language local weather propaganda on social media, says framing U.S. local weather litigation as a China-funded marketing campaign is “an easy tactic” to whip up opposition.

“China doesn’t have a very good name in Washington, D.C.,” Liu says, and Beijing does attempt to affect politics and public opinion globally on a variety of points.

China’s embassy in Washington didn’t reply to messages looking for remark for this story.

‘We needs to be very cautious to truly know what’s actual and what’s not’

The alleged funding scheme that Cruz described in June revolves round a nonprofit referred to as Vitality Basis China. Headquartered in San Francisco with an workplace in Beijing, the group is led by a former official at China’s Nationwide Heart for Local weather Change Technique and Worldwide Cooperation. Final 12 months, GOP lawmakers requested Vitality Basis China for paperwork associated to its funding of U.S. organizations.

On the Senate listening to this summer time, Cruz mentioned Vitality Basis China is “one of the primary vehicles” for a global alliance between “leftist billionaires, radical environmental organizations and the Chinese Communist Party.”

“And this money isn’t going to tree-planting campaigns or to science fairs,” Cruz mentioned. “It’s flowing directly to aggressive litigation outfits, like the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Rocky Mountain Institute and the World Resources Institute.”

Vitality Basis China has given cash to all three of these teams, in line with tax filings. However Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, mentioned on the June listening to that Cruz hadn’t supplied proof that the cash was used to pay for U.S. lawsuits — versus making an attempt to chop local weather air pollution in China.

“If it turns out that China is supporting lawsuits in the United States, that would be extremely troubling. And so I think we should be very careful to actually know what’s real and what’s not,” says Ilaria Mazzocco, a senior fellow who focuses on Chinese language enterprise and economics on the Heart for Strategic and Worldwide Research.

A spokesperson for the Rocky Mountain Institute, Adam Beitman, mentioned in a press release to NPR that the nonprofit doesn’t take part in litigation, and that all the funding it has acquired from Vitality Basis China “is focused squarely on the energy transition inside of China.”

A spokesperson for the World Sources Institute, Alison Cinnamond, mentioned her group doesn’t take part in litigation, nor does it direct authorized motion by different teams. “WRI’s work in China focuses on issues like air quality, sustainable cities, energy efficiency, and resilience — areas that are essential for global well-being,” Cinnamond mentioned in a press release.

Michael Wall, the chief litigation officer for the Pure Sources Protection Council, says the nonprofit has used funding from Vitality Basis China completely for packages to chop local weather air pollution in China. Within the U.S., NRDC has sued authorities companies and firms which have violated environmental legal guidelines, Wall says, and the nonprofit is defending state legal guidelines in New York and Vermont to power fossil gas corporations to assist cowl the prices of local weather change.

An government at Vitality Basis China, Vance Wagner, mentioned in a press release that the nonprofit is an unbiased group that funds analysis and different initiatives to handle local weather change in China, which is the largest supply of heat-trapping air pollution globally. Wagner mentioned the group would not fund or interact in activism, litigation or lobbying in any nation.

Republican attorneys basic wish to defend power corporations from lawsuits

Days earlier than Cruz accused China of bankrolling the local weather circumstances, greater than a dozen Republican state attorneys basic despatched a letter to U.S. Legal professional Basic Pam Bondi asking the Justice Division to advocate federal laws to present power corporations a “liability shield” to guard them from local weather litigation. The Justice Division’s Workplace of Coverage and Laws is charged with growing legislative proposals, amongst different duties. Earlier this month, for instance, the division despatched Congress proposed laws that will prohibit medical doctors from offering gender-affirming care to youngsters.

Within the letter to Bondi, the Republican attorneys basic wrote that the authorized safety they wish to create for power corporations is just like a 2005 legislation referred to as the Safety of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which typically shields gun producers and sellers from civil lawsuits when firearms are utilized in legal exercise.

Kansas Legal professional Basic Kris Kobach, a Republican who signed the letter to Bondi, then served as an knowledgeable witness at Cruz’s listening to about China. “I think that where Congress can be helpful in these [climate] cases is in getting to the bottom of where the money is coming from,” Kobach mentioned on the listening to.

Cruz’s allegation of Chinese language funding was designed “to create political cover” for Congress to present fossil gas corporations authorized immunity from local weather litigation, says Richard Wiles, president of the Heart for Local weather Integrity, which helps local weather lawsuits towards the fossil gas trade by submitting authorized briefs and offering plaintiffs with paperwork.

The Justice Division didn’t reply to messages looking for remark.

Up to now, the local weather lawsuits filed by states and localities have had blended outcomes. Some circumstances have been dismissed by judges who dominated that local weather air pollution is a difficulty for the federal authorities to cope with. However different lawsuits are shifting towards trial. In January, the Supreme Court docket rejected an effort by oil and gasoline corporations to dam a local weather lawsuit filed by Honolulu. And in March the justices turned down a request by Republican attorneys basic to cease local weather lawsuits filed by states together with California, Connecticut, Minnesota and Rhode Island.

“All these communities are asking is that the oil industry pay their fair share of the damages that they knowingly cause,” Wiles says. “It’s completely reasonable.”

In a authorized transient difficult a lawsuit that Boulder, Colorado filed towards oil and gasoline corporations, the Justice Division just lately instructed the Supreme Court docket that permitting local weather litigation to maneuver ahead in state courts exposes power corporations to billions of {dollars} in damages, in addition to a complicated assortment of native rules.

Lawsuit critics say oil and gasoline corporations are victims of Massive Philanthropy

Opponents of the local weather lawsuits have lengthy claimed that activists and deep-pocketed philanthropies have been colluding with Democratic politicians to harm U.S. oil and gasoline corporations. In 2023, Cruz and Rep. James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, requested for monetary data from Sher Edling, a legislation agency that is filed lots of the local weather lawsuits introduced by states and localities.

Final 12 months, The Free Beacon, a conservative information web site, revealed a Congressional memo that detailed funding that a number of nonprofits have given to Sher Edling. Since that cash got here from tax-exempt organizations, taxpayers successfully have been “bearing the cost” of Sher Edling’s authorized work, in line with the memo, which was written by Republican staffers on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and the Home Committee on Oversight and Accountability.

The memo added: “Although not illegal, this structure allows the green mafia to achieve its political goals while lowering its tax bill.”

The Congressional memo names three nonprofits that gave cash to Sher Edling: New Enterprise Fund, the Tides Basis and Sources Legacy Fund. Tax filings present that every one three obtained funding from Vitality Basis China, however two of them obtained these grants earlier than they began funding Sher Edling.

Of the three, Sources Legacy Fund in 2017 obtained $185,00 from Vitality Basis China, in line with an Vitality Basis China tax submitting. The cash was meant “to promote education and analysis to build markets for clean, affordable energy that protects public health.” That very same 12 months, Sources Legacy Fund gave Sher Edling about $432,000 for “land or marine conservation,” in line with a Sources Legacy Fund tax submitting.

Sources Legacy Fund didn’t reply to messages looking for remark. Neither did the Tides Basis. New Enterprise Fund declined to remark.

Sher Edling declined to remark for this story.

Wall of the Pure Sources Protection Council rejected the concept philanthropic funding has unfairly deprived oil and gasoline corporations in court docket. “There’s simply no comparison between the resources the oil industry has and the resources that nonprofits have,” he says. “Litigation is a way for people to participate in the governmental process by working to ensure that the laws that protect them are enforced and carried out.”

In a letter to Cruz and Comer final 12 months that was obtained by NPR, a lawyer for Sher Edling wrote that fossil gas corporations which might be defendants within the local weather circumstances “fear that the communities will prevail in those lawsuits — and so they now hope that you will run interference for them. Respectfully, you should not.”

When Cruz accused China of funding U.S. local weather lawsuits this summer time, he mentioned Beijing’s aim is to determine “global energy dominance and control.” China is the world’s largest producer of inexperienced know-how, like photo voltaic panels and electrical autos. And Republican lawmakers and conservative activists for years have argued that local weather insurance policies that shift the U.S. away from fossil fuels would make America depending on Chinese language provide chains.

However Liu of Nationwide Taiwan College says Beijing might be content material to have the U.S. deal with oil and gasoline, reasonably than to problem China in different components of the power market.

“China wants to be the leader in the key technology in the future, so that they don’t have to be controlled by the West,” Liu says, including: “If we are following this train of thought, then they will prefer [the] U.S. not taking climate very seriously, and let China take over all the EVs, take over solar and wind.”