Comer Investigates Bloomberg Philanthropies for Partisan Activism with State Attorneys General

WASHINGTON—House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) is investigating ties between the New York University School of Law’s (NYU) State Energy & Environmental Impact Center (State Impact Center) and several offices of state attorneys general. In letters to Patricia Harris, Chief Executive Officer of Bloomberg Philanthropies, and Bethany Davis Noll, Executive Director of The State Energy & Environmental Impact Center, Chairman Comer raises ethical questions and concerns about Bloomberg Philanthropies’ funding of State Impact Center fellows who then use their positions in state attorneys general offices to file activist lawsuits and lobby for burdensome regulations. Chairman Comer also requests information about staff embedded in offices of state attorneys general funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies. 
 
“In 2016, Bloomberg Philanthropies provided a grant to establish the State Impact Center at NYU. Many of the projects that the State Impact Center’s fellows lead fit squarely within Bloomberg Philanthropies’ ‘Beyond Carbon’ and ‘Beyond Petrochemicals’ campaigns. The State Impact Center’s advisory council also includes executives from the ‘green’ energy industry who have an interest in undermining fossil fuels. As discussed above, NYU’s State Impact Center pays the salaries of special assistant attorneys to work on select energy and environmental cases,” wrote Chairman Comer. “The founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies, Mr. Bloomberg, has provided hundreds of millions of dollars for partisan climate-focused advocacy campaigns and has a clear interest in influencing actions by state attorneys general… While Mr. Bloomberg disguises his donations as ‘philanthropy,’ the State Impact Center is a mechanism for him to skirt legislative bodies and effect partisan policy.” 
 
NYU’s State Impact Center bills itself as a nonpartisan organization that supports state attorneys general in relation to energy and environmental policy, but the organization’s database indicates prioritization of and support for Democratic state attorneys general and policies like the Biden Administration’s overreaching energy and climate regulations. In contrast, there are no known examples of State Impact Center fellows working for or supporting Republican state attorneys general offices and policies. The Bloomberg-NYU State Impact Center serves clearly partisan interests will raise costs and lower the quality of life for many hardworking Americans.  
 
“The role of an attorney general is vital to America’s legal system. The Bloomberg-NYU program, however, undermines faith in that system. The circumstances surrounding the State Impact Center raise questions as to whether participating state attorneys general are acting on independent judgement to best serve the interests of their states’ citizens. The Bloomberg-NYU program effectively offers states partisan money from a billionaire to carry out official functions of their offices,” concluded Chairman Comer. “The Bloomberg-NYU partisan agenda will likely hurt working-class Americans in the name of the partisan globalist climate-agenda. The average American household will pay the cost of this destructive agenda in the form of subsidies and regulations, fewer energy options, taxes to fund federal agencies’ legal defense, and higher utility bills.”  
 
Read the letter to Bloomberg Philanthropies here.  

Read the letter to The State Energy & Environmental Impact Center here.