A Senate Judiciary Committee hearing examining the role of Chinese funding in climate litigation became a debate between Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who argued Chinese influence is undermining American energy, and Senate Democrats who want oil companies to pay billions of dollars for what they claim is a “catastrophe.”
“We’re witnessing right now a systematic campaign against American energy. There is a coordinated assault by the radical left, backed and paid for by the Chinese Communist Party, to seize control of our courts, to weaponize litigation against us energy producers — all in order to undermine American energy dominance,” Cruz said in his opening statement.
Cruz explained that foreign money tied to the Chinese Communist Party bankrolls climate advocacy groups, who file lawsuits against fossil fuel projects. Activist lawyers then flood courts with lawsuits designed to bankrupt energy producers, Cruz said, and activist groups providing training to judges involved in climate litigation “indoctrinate” those judges in favor of the plaintiffs in these cases.
Cruz was referring to the Climate Judiciary Project (CJP), which is a project of the Environmental Law Institute. The CJP has long been criticized for receiving funding from foundations that advocate for a transition away from fossil fuels and for providing biased information to judges who oversee climate litigation cases. Cruz said the same foundations funding the CJP are also funding the law firms that represent plaintiffs in these lawsuits.
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Author: Marty Kaufmann
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