Today, the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency will hold a hearing to highlight how taxpayer dollars are funneled through NGOs to advance wealthy donors’ agendas.

As the subcommittee shows interest in investigating these suspicious activities, the climate litigation ecosystem is a prime place to look. Here are the key points witnesses and committee members should consider:

1. Federal funding of the Climate Judiciary Project

One of today’s hearing witnesses, Scott Walker, president of the Capital Research Center, called out the Environmental Law Institute’s Climate Judiciary Project (CJP) in his written testimony as an egregious example of a taxpayer-funded NGO pursuing a radical agenda. As Walker details in his written testimony:

“…the controversial Climate Judiciary Project, which seeks to ‘educate’—from a left-wing perspective—federal and state judges about climate change and related litigation designed to extract billions of dollars from oil and gas companies for alleged climate harms. These trainings attempt to influence the very judges who hearing these cases, using a curriculum developed in part by individuals assisting with that litigation.”

CJP started in 2018, and has briefed more than 2,000 judges on climate litigation. A 2021 Princeton Alumni Weekly profile of the group’s founder, Paul Hanle, explained the motivation behind the group’s efforts, stating “Now [Hanle is] explaining the science of climate change to a group of people with real power to act on it: judges.”

Read more on EID Climate.