First appeared on FOX: Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is rumored to be on the shortlist for presumptive nominee Kamala Harris’ running mate, has applied to be the state’s attorney general to take part in a Michael Bloomberg-backed program to appoint a special climate prosecutor to go after the state’s energy industry.
Under the Trump administration, The Wall Street Journal reported. The report, which said climate activists have “begun stationing Attorney General’s Office staff in questionable private and public apartment complexes,” highlighted a “remarkable arrangement” by the Center on State Energy and Environmental Impact at New York University School of Law.
The effort was launched in 2017 as part of a $6 million grant from the Bloomberg Charitable Foundation to “advance liberal climate and energy policies.”
The program is legal and places Bloomberg-funded oil and gas lawyers in several jurisdictions. Connecticutbased in Illinois, New Mexico and Washington, D.C., focuses on climate issues and litigation against oil and gas companies.
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Attorney General Josh Shapiro applied in 2018 to participate in the program to fund special counsel to pursue cases against oil and gas companies backed by Bloomberg.
“The State Energy and Environmental Impact Center at NYU School of Law studies and supports the work of state attorneys general to defend, implement and advance strong laws and policies in the areas of climate, environmental justice, environmental protection and clean energy.” Program Website state.
In 2018 Applying for the ProgramShapiro’s office said Pennsylvania “remains dependent on burning coal for the majority of the state’s energy production, and ‘Pennsylvania’s Perspective’ provides a unique and powerful platform to create progressive environmental law and policy change from within.”
“In other words, while many states can and do fight for progressive environmental reform, the influence of environmental leaders like Attorney General Josh Shapiro is simply more powerful when they are fighting in coal-burning, Marcellus Shale gas-extracting, ozone-depleting states where environmental activism is not always politically acceptable,” the attorney general’s office continued.
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Josh Shapiro speaks during his swearing-in ceremony as Governor of Pennsylvania at the State Capitol in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on January 17, 2023. Shapiro defeated Republican candidate Doug Mastriano by about 15 percentage points in the November election. (Mark Makela/Getty Images)
“State Attorneys General should describe the scope of specific needs within their offices related to advocating for and defending progressive clean energy, climate change and environmental issues,” the application summary states. “Relevant details may include the extent to which funding or other capacity constraints limit their ability to address these issues or how additional committed support would help advance the State Attorneys General’s work on behalf of their constituents.”
“Priority consideration will be given to state attorneys general who have demonstrated an urgent need for additional assistance and commitment to clean energy, climate change or environmental issues of regional or national significance, including issues that cross jurisdictional boundaries or raise legal questions or disputes of national application.”
Shapiro’s office wrote that he needs more “financial resources” to remain a leader on “progressive” climate change.
“But leading such an effort requires financial resources, and perhaps because of that unique position, previous Pennsylvania attorneys general have not prioritized environmental efforts,” Shapiro wrote.
“The environmental division that Attorney General Shapiro inherited is therefore significantly smaller than those in other environmental leaders’ Attorney General offices. Granting Pennsylvania’s application is therefore particularly significant. It will enable the Pennsylvania Attorney General not only to join other states in litigation challenging the Trump Administration’s efforts to weaken environmental regulations, but also to hire one or more SAAGs, be more aggressive generally, and serve as lead plaintiff in future similar litigation.”
In a statement to Fox News Digital, a spokesperson for the State Impact Center confirmed that Shapiro applied and was denied, but said the center “does not have a record of why the application did not move forward.”
“To clarify how the State Impact Center’s SAAG program works, it enhances the attorney general’s capacity and provides additional resources that can be deployed at the attorney general’s discretion,” the spokesperson said. “The attorney general directs the work of the SAAG, and the SAAG’s only loyalty is to the office in which they serve.”
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Vice President Kamala Harris and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro (L) hold a press conference during a stop at Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024. (Ryan Collard/AFP via Getty Images)
Republican Rep. Guy Reschenthaler of Pennsylvania told Fox News Digital that it was despicable that Shapiro would “hire an unaccountable prosecutor funded by Bloomberg to specifically target Pennsylvania energy producers and job creators.”
“Pennsylvania is the second largest producer of natural gas, third largest producer of coal and third largest producer of electricity. To say our state is the powerhouse of the nation is an understatement. Yet Governor Josh Shapiro and Vice President Harris’ Democrats have relentlessly attacked our energy industry and the 130,000 good-paying union jobs it supports. VP Harris has even gone so far as to say, ‘There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking.'”
“Our communities depend on America becoming energy independent again, and we must reject any attempts by the far-left to destroy their way of life with the Green New Deal,” Reschenthaler added.
The Wall Street Journal wrote that SAAG’s “ethical problems” should be obvious.
“This is a fundamental issue of ethics and who is running the government,” West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, one of the few Republican attorneys general to raise concerns about the Bloomberg-funded program, said in 2020.
A shale gas well drilling site in St. Marys, Pennsylvania. (AP Photo/Keith Slacocik, File)
“When you actually appoint somebody with a specific agenda, pay them and have that person be within the attorney general’s office, it really starts to raise questions about whether there are multiple bosses within the attorney general’s office and it really starts to stink.”
Shapiro said, Recently met Vice President Harris, whose search for a running mate is nearing completion, has been described as a “moderate” and “practical” since taking office as governor. Featured in Politico While he has been praised for taking a “moderate position” on issues that directly affect hundreds of thousands of energy workers in the state, his past comments could come back to haunt him.
Bloomberg has made his position on climate change clear in a number of statements over the years, including calling for the closure of all coal-fired power plants and the phase-out of gas-fired power plants.
Chris Horner, a Washington-based lawyer who worked with energy policy advocacy groups on public records requests about the State Impact Center’s activities, said the group’s self-declared “nonpartisan” label is a smokescreen for pursuing ideologically-based “progressive” goals with SAAG, which the group calls “mercenary.”
“Being nonpartisan just means you promise to use mercenaries to push for ‘progressive’ climate change legal positions,” he said. “And that makes you partisan? Don’t even think about that. It’s purely ideological.”
COP28 President-designate Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber and UN Special Envoy for Climate Ambition and Solutions, and founder of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies, spoke onstage announcing the COP28 Regional Climate Action Summit on September 19, 2023 at the Plaza Hotel in New York City, alongside local leaders at COP28 in Dubai in December. (Brian Beder/Getty Images for Bloomberg Philanthropies)
Presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris has previously called for a ban on fracking, a major energy and jobs driver in Pennsylvania. It was retracted. A few weeks after becoming the presumptive candidate.
“We believe that elected officials who have previously voiced concerns about oil and natural gas development to the point of calling for a total ban on fracking in the United States would gain an entirely new perspective on how important these energy sources are to our country if they were presented with facts from objective sources rather than emotional campaign appeals,” Dan Weaver, president and executive director of the Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association, told Fox News Digital.
“The facts are simple and compelling: natural gas produces more than a third of our nation’s electricity and there are no realistic, economical options to replace the amount of energy consumers are demanding and meet the massive increases projected in demand from data centers and a growing economy,” he continued.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro attends the Wawa Welcome American Freedom Celebration on July 4, 2023 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC Images)
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“U.S.-produced oil is refined domestically into gasoline and diesel and currently fuels 98 percent of U.S. vehicles. This trend will continue for many years to come, but replacing this oil with imported oil from other countries is costly and uncertain. Finally, the role of more than 6,000 consumer, medical, and transportation products that are only possible through the processing of oil and natural gas cannot be dismissed with a simple ‘ban on fracking.'”
“PIOGA believes that once informed of these facts, Governor Shapiro, like Senator John Fetterman, Vice President Kamala Harris and many others, will conclude that oil and natural gas are essential to our country,” Weaver added.
Fox News Digital reached out to Shapiro’s office for comment but did not receive a response.
Fox News Digital’s Tyler Olson contributed to this report.
