Calls Grow to Investigate Climate Activists’ Influence on Judges
This month, two major letters were sent with the same goal: to stop climate activists from manipulating America’s courts through the Climate Judiciary Project (CJP). Last week, Power The Future sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi at the Department of Justice, calling for a federal investigation into what we see as a coordinated national lawfare campaign. At the center of this scheme is the Environmental Law Institute’s CJP, which has been quietly “educating” nearly two thousand judges, including federal judges, on how to view and approach climate litigation.
This isn’t neutral education. It’s advocacy, behind closed doors, aimed at tilting the scales of justice. Thanks to Freedom of Information Act requests, we uncovered troubling evidence:
- Emails showing plaintiffs’ expert witnesses, like Dr. Don Wuebbles and Dr. Ben Santer, were repeatedly brought in to brief judges on climate science with no opposing viewpoints.
- Records where CJP leaders openly bragged about judges connecting their messaging to active dockets, with one email even saying, “Just what we want to see!”
- A listserv of judges and CJP leaders trading links and updates on climate litigation strategies, even praising presentations that openly discussed bankrupting America’s fuel industry.
Then this week, 23 Republican state attorneys generals followed suit, sending their own letter to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. Their letter demanded that the EPA end its funding of the Environmental Law Institute, which bankrolls the CJP.
Both letters send a clear message: climate activists cannot hijack the courts to force policies that voters have rejected. We will keep working hard to expose eco-left schemes, defend America’s energy workers, and fight back against activist lawfare every step of the way.
August 27, 2025