State and federal government officials are trying to harass, intimidate, and silence NRDC and other nonprofit environmental advocates.
📌 The Core Development
The Attorney General of West Virginia recently initiated an investigation of NRDC and a handful of other groups on the stated ground that we may have committed consumer fraud. The theory appears to be that it’s deceptive for NRDC to say that the burning of fossil fuels contributes to climate change, which, in turn, causes harm to the planet and its people. But that’s fact, not fraud.
To pursue his investigation, the AG served a subpoena seeking a vast trove of confidential internal and external communications relating to our advocacy around climate change for the past 10 years. The demand could cover sensitive strategy memos for policy advocacy, draft comments on regulations, exchanges with coalition partners, back-and-forth among scientists, dialogues with donors, and drafts of NRDC publications; all disclosed to a hostile adversary.
🔍 Background & Sector Context
Co-counseling with Democracy Forward, we responded to the subpoena by preparing a federal lawsuit asserting infringement of our First Amendment rights to speak, associate with others, and advocate for effective solutions to the climate crisis. Those solutions include the replacement of fossil fuels with renewable sources of energy. And that is what drives the AG’s attempt to punish NRDC: pure retaliation for the content of our point of view.
At 2:13 p.m. on October 22, we advised the AG that we were going to file suit early that evening. A little more than two hours later, at 4:32 p.m., the AG withdrew the subpoena.
📊 Industry & Real-World Impact
The AG is not alone in trying to bully NRDC. In September, the Committee on Natural Resources of the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter of inquiry to NRDC and 18 other nonprofit environmental groups , informing us they are investigating the groups’ litigation practices. Why? According to the Committee, the targeted groups “build powerful and profitable litigation machines funded by taxpayer dollars through the exploitation of statutory fee-shifting provisions.” On this purported basis, the Committee demanded that NRDC disclose an exhaustive array of intrusive information and documents that could take months of concentrated effort to produce.
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🔮 Strategic Outlook & What Lies Ahead
The premise of the Committee’s inquiry is that NRDC “effectively function[s] as [a] law firm[] funded by taxpayer dollars.” It calls NRDC “one of the most active litigating environmental nonprofit organizations driving the exploitation of statutory fee–shifting provisions.”
While NRDC is indeed an active litigant in federal court, it rarely receives attorney fees from the federal government. During our past five fiscal years, NRDC’s income from such fees in cases involving agencies or statutes identified in the Committee’s letter constituted 0.112 percent of our operating budget. In light of this numerical fact, contending that NRDC “build[s] a business model focused on siphoning tax dollars by weaponizing litigation awards” is unmoored from reality. With minimal effort, Committee members or staff could have discovered this from documents in the public record.
