Bloomberg’s Climate Lawyer Scheme Shuts Down
A climate program backed by billionaire Michael Bloomberg that paid attorneys to work inside state attorneys general offices has quietly shut down after facing growing scrutiny over its funding and operations.
According to the Washington Free Beacon, the State Energy and Environmental Impact Center, housed at NYU School of Law, closed at the end of August. Since its creation, the program placed climate-focused fellows in attorneys general’s offices in Washington, D.C., and in at least 10 states.
The program had already caught the attention of House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY), who launched an investigation in July 2025 into Bloomberg Philanthropies’ ties to the center and requested documents on fellows’ placement and funding. The committee raised concerns about privately funded attorneys participating in official state actions on energy and environmental policy.
Now, the program is gone; the questions surrounding billionaire-funded climate activism are not.
“While affordability is on everyone’s mind, these lawyers were busy manufacturing lawsuits that made energy, and everything that depends on it more expensive,” said Daniel Turner, Founder and Executive Director for Power The Future. “Credit to Chairman Comer for turning up the heat because that kind of scrutiny is exactly why this scheme couldn’t survive in the daylight. This wasn’t philanthropy, it was a billionaire paying the salaries of government lawyers to drive up costs on working Americans so he could feel good about his climate legacy. They didn’t even bother defending it in court, choosing to shut the lights off and hope no one would notice. Nobody should be fooled: these groups will simply find new ways to hide, and vigorous oversight needs to continue during the remainder of the 119th Congress.”
The Bloomberg-backed center may have shut its doors, but taxpayers and ratepayers deserve transparency about who is funding efforts that influence government energy policy.
September 22, 2026