Energy & Environment Legal Institute (E&E Legal)

Background

The Energy & Environment Legal Institute (E&E Legal), formerly the American Tradition Institute (ATI), is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Washington, DC. The group was originally based in Colorado, where it was known as the American Tradition Institute, an offshoot of the 501(C)(4) organization “American Trade Partnership” (ATP) or “Western Tradition Partnership” (WTP), which were associated with controversy in campaign financing during the 2010 elections.

According to their About page, in September 2013, E&E Legal's Board of Directors voted “to refine its focus primarily to the area of strategic litigation, and to change its name in order to reflect more accurately its work in the legal arena.” [1]

The Huffington Post reports ATP/WTP and the American Tradition Institute worked to fight laws requiring the disclosure of political contributions by corporations. In 2010, the Montana Commission of Political Practices found that the Western Tradition Partnership had broken state law by failing to report its donors and spending. They found that it solicited unlimited contributions to support candidates and then passed them through a “sham organization” called The Coalition for Energy and the Environment that ran attack ads against Democrats. WTP told corporations that it aimed to combat 'radical environmentalists' and 'beat them at their own game' and that their contributions would remain secret.”

The state also suggested that WTP/ATP had been involved in corruption and money laundering. [2], [3]

When the Western Trade Partnership changed its name to the American Tradition Partnership in 2010, it also announced that it had launched the American Tradition Institute, a think tank it said would be “battling radical environmentalist junk science head on.”

E&E's Mission Statement is below:

“The Energy and Environment Legal Institute (E&E Legal) is a 501(c)(3) organization engaged in strategic litigation, policy research, and public education on important energy and environmental issues. Primarily through its strategic litigation efforts, E&E Legal seeks to address and correct onerous federal and state governmental actions that negatively impact energy and the environment. E&E Legal advocates responsible resource development, sound science, respect for property rights, and a commitment to markets as it holds accountable those who seek excessive and destructive government regulation that’s based on agenda-driven policy making, junk science, and hysteria.” [1]

The group's website at one time stated it was part of a “broader network of groups with close ties to energy interests that have long fought greenhouse gas regulation.” According to a 2011 study by the Institute for Southern Studies, that network had connections with “the Koch brothers, Art Pope and other conservative donors seeking to expand their political influence.” [4]

Stance on Climate Change

An online petition hosted by the American Tradition Institute opposing cap and trade makes the following assertions about climate change: [5]

“… the claims of carbon-driven anthropogenic global warming (AGW) are unproven and are, in fact, contested by over 31,000 scientists…”

“… global temperatures have not risen since 2000 and data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration demonstrates that the earth has actually been cooling for the last 4 years…”

Funding

Conservative Transparency reports that the Energy & Environment Legal Institute received $335,000 in contributions from Donors Trust, and $50,000 from Donors Capital Fund in 2012 alone. Both Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund are responsible for distributing millions of dollars in grants while concealing the original identity of their donors. [6]

According to a 2010 filing with the IRS(PDF), The American Tradition Institute received $40,000 from its sister group American Tradition Partnership (ATP).

SourceWatch reports a total of $5,000 from the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, while Conservative Transparency lists an additional $15,000 from the group. Atlas is a Virginia-based think tank that, according to ExxonSecrets, received over $1 million in funding from Exxon Mobil since 1998. Atlas also received $122,300 from the Koch family foundations and $735,000 from the Pope foundation. [7], [8], [9]

Key People

Senior Leadership [10]

David Schnare — General Counsel
Craig Richardson — Executive Director
Tom Tanton — Director, Science & Technology Assessment

ATI's past executive director is Paul Chesser, who WTP/ATP describes as a “noted climate scholar.” Chesser is not a scientist. He has edited two weekly conservative newspapers, as well as a variety of fundamentalist websites like The Good Steward.com, Evangelical Press, the Christian Examiner, The Home School Legal Defense Association, and evolution denier Answers in Genesis.

Fellows & Advisors [11]

Amy Oliver Cooke — Senior Media Fellow
Katy Grimes— Senior Media Fellow
Chris Horner— Senior Legal Fellow
Steve Milloy - Senior Policy Fellow
Jenna Ashley Robinson— Senior Policy Fellow
George Taylor - Senior Policy Fellow
Greg Walcher - Board Member and Senior Policy Fellow

Actions

June 16, 2015

The Energy & Environment Legal Institute created a video claiming many environmental policies “will actually harm to most vulnerable among us” and warns Pope Francis not to back environmental policies. The video implies that climate policies are contributing to “energy property” that is “killing Europe's seniors and poor by the tens of thousands.”

Video below:

The video was also promoted in an article headlined, “Conservatives Warn Pope That Climate Policies Will Kill Seniors, Poor” in the Daily Caller. [12]

June, 2015

The Energy & Environment Legal Institute's Attorney at Law Chris Horner was a speaker at the 2015 Coal and Investment Leadership Forum. Those named in the invitation included Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush, Tennessee Valley Authority president Bill Johns, and “the owners and chief executives of coal mining and energy companies” including Alliance Resource Partners, Alpha Natural Resources, Consol Energy, Drummond Company, Arch Coal, and United Coal Company.

According to The Guardian, the meeting's attendees were “across the board from the energy sector including not only coal industry executives but also some from oil and gas industry, manufacturers and supplies of the energy sector generally as well as leaders of the banking and financial industry that follow and impact the sector.” [13]

November, 2014

The Energy & Environment Legal Institute challenged the constitutionality of Colorado’s renewable energy standard. The standard, passed in November 2004, had imposed stricter standards for emissions standards of power plants.

David Schnare, general counsel to the Energy & Environment Legal Institute, said that “It is unconstitutional, and it causes more harm to human health and the environment than it prevents.”

Heartland Institute Policy Analyst Taylor Smith applauded the EELI’s challenge, saying “It’s great to see E&E Legal is not giving up on this very important issue. Colorado has one of the nation’s most stringent renewable energy mandates, a law that accomplishes little else than shift resources from productive sectors to unproductive ones. Let’s hope the law is found unconstitutional.” [14]

May, 2012

The Guardian posted a confidential memo, prepared by a fellow at the American Tradition Institute (ATI), that made recommendations to build a national PR campaign and non-profit organization dedicated to causing “subversion in message of [wind] industry so that it effectively becomes so bad that no one wants to admit in public they are for it.”

Suggestions in the memo included creating “dummy businesses” that would buy anti-wind billboards, and creating a “counter-intelligence branch” to track the wind energy industry. It also suggested spending $750,000 on an organization with paid staff and tax-exempt status that would build opposition to state and federal policies promoting wind power. [15]

May 16, 2011

Operating as the American Tradition Institute (ATI), The Energy and Environment Legal Institute filed a lawsuit against the University of Virginia and attempted to obtain emails and other documents related to former professor Michael Mann, a world renowned climate scientist.

The Institute sought to reveal Mann's correspondence in an attempt to prove their accusation that he had manipulated data in order to receive government grants. [16]

January 19, 2011

Operating as the American Tradition Institute (ATI), The Energy and Environment Legal Institute filed a federal FOIA request with NASA seeking information on how climate scientist James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies “has complied with applicable federal ethics and financial disclosure laws and regulations, and NASA Rules of Behaviour.”

E&E Legal sued NASA for withholding documents over concerns about Hansen's privacy rights. [17]

2009

As reported at the Huffington Post, “in 2009, the group sued Longmont, CO over their Fair Campaign Practices Act. The city settled and agreed to drop disclosure requirements. In 2010, after the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, WTP/ATP successfully challenged the constitutionality of the Montana Corrupt Practices Act of 1912, which prohibited independent political expenditures by corporations.” [2]

Related Organizations

Here is a breakdown of the organizations:

Western Tradition Institute (WTI)> Renamed American Tradition Institute (ATI) > Renamed Energy & Environment Legal Institute (E&E Legal)
Western Trade Partnership (WPT) > Renamed American Tradition Partnership (ATP) in 2010 > Responsible for launching the American Tradition Institute.

George Mason School of Law

As reported by SourceWatch (as of 2012), the George Mason Environmental Law Clinic (GMELC) at George Mason University served as the attorneys for then-ATI, according to GMELC's 2012 IRS filing (PDF). The clinic was led by the following people: [18]