'Moderate' Harris VP contender sought left-wing 'mercenaries' to thwart rust belt energy industry

FIRST ON FOX: Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is rumored to be on the short list of vice-presidential candidates for presumptive nominee Kamala Harris, applied as state attorney general to be part of a Michael Bloomberg-sponsored program to appoint special climate prosecutors to go after the energy industry in his state.

During the Trump administration, the Wall Street Journal reported that climate activists began "placing employees in Attorneys General offices in dubious private-public condominiums" highlighted a "remarkable arrangement" by the NYU Law School’s State Energy and Environmental Impact Center.

The effort was launched in 2017 as part of a $6 million grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies to "advance a liberal climate and energy agenda."

The program, which is legal, has placed Bloomberg-funded attorneys in several jurisdictions, including in Connecticut, Illinois, New Mexico, and Washington, D.C., where they focus on climate issues and litigating against oil and gas companies.

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"The State Energy & Environmental Impact Center at NYU Law studies and supports the work of state attorneys general in defending, enforcing, and promoting strong laws and policies in the areas of climate, environmental justice, environmental protection, and clean energy," the program's website states.

In his 2018 application for the program, Shapiro’s office said that Pennsylvania was a "state whose own energy production remains largely based on the burning of coal. This ‘Pennsylvania perspective’ provides a unique and powerful platform from which to create progressive environmental legal and policy change – from within."

"Put otherwise, while many states can and do fight for progressive environmental legal change, when that fighter is a coal-burning, Marcellus Shale gas-extracting, ozone-suffering state where environmental action may not always be politically palatable, the impact of an environmental leader like Attorney General Josh Shapiro is simply more powerful," his office continued.

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"State attorneys general should describe the particular scope of needs within their offices related to the advancement and defense of progressive clean energy, climate change, and environmental matters," the prompt for the application states. "Relevant details include the extent to which funding or other capacity constraints have limited the ability to work on these issues or how additional dedicated support could help advance the work of the state attorney general on behalf of his or her constituents."

"Priority consideration will be given to state attorneys general who demonstrate a commitment to and acute need for additional support on clean energy, climate change, and environmental issues of regional or national importance, such as those matters that cross jurisdictional boundaries or raise legal questions or conflicts that have nationwide applicability."

Shapiro's office wrote that he needs more "economic resources" to continue being a leader of "progressive" climate efforts.

"Being a leader of these efforts, however, requires economic resources. Perhaps because of its unique position, previous Pennsylvania attorneys general did not focus on environmental protection efforts," Shapiro wrote. 

"Therefore, the environmental section Attorney General Shapiro inherited was notably smaller than those found in attorney general offices of other environmental leaders. As such, granting Pennsylvania’s application will be particularly significant. It will allow the PA OAG not just to join other states in lawsuits challenging the Trump Administration’s efforts to weaken environmental regulations, but to hire one or more SAAGs so it can be more proactive across-the-board and serve as the lead plaintiff in future such actions."

In a statement to Fox News Digital, a spokesperson for the State Impact Center said the organization does "not have a record of why the application did not move forward."

"To clarify how the State Impact Center’s SAAG program works: it adds capacity for attorneys general, providing them with additional resources to be deployed at their discretion," the spokesperson said. "Attorneys general direct the work of the SAAGs. The SAAG's sole duty of loyalty is to the office in which they work."

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Pennsylvania Republican Congressman Guy Reschenthaler told Fox News Digital that Shapiro recruiting a "Bloomberg-funded, unaccountable prosecutor to specifically target energy producers and job creators in Pennsylvania is despicable."

"Pennsylvania ranks second in natural gas production, third in coal production, and third in electricity production. It is an understatement to say that our commonwealth powers the nation. But Democrats here at home led by Governor Josh Shapiro and Vice President Harris relentlessly attack our energy industry and the 130,000 good-paying, union jobs it supports. Vice President Harris even said, 'There's no question I'm in favor of banning fracking."

Reschenthaler continued, "Our communities depend on making America energy independent again and must reject any attempts by far-left influences to destroy their livelihoods with a Green New Deal agenda."

The Wall Street Journal wrote that "ethical problems" with SAAGs should be obvious."

"This is a fundamental question of ethics and who's running our government," West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, one of a handful of Republican attorneys general who have raised concerns about the Bloomberg-funded program, said in 2020.

"When you actually get to place someone in under a specific agenda and then pay them, and they’re within the office, that starts to call into question whether there are multiple masters within an attorney general office, and that starts to really stink."

Shapiro, who is reported to have recently met with VP Harris as her search for a vice president comes to a close, has been referred to as a "moderate" and "practical" since becoming governor and was referred to in Politico as having "struck a middle" ground on the issue that directly affects hundreds of thousands of energy workers in the commonwealth, but his past rhetoric could come back to haunt him.

Bloomberg has made his position on climate change clear in many statements over the years, including calling for the elimination of all coal-fired power plants and phasing out gas-powered plants.

According to Washington-based attorney Chris Horner, who worked with Energy Policy Advocates on public records requests into the State Impact Center's activities, the group's self-declared "nonpartisan" label is a smokescreen allowing it to pursue ideologically motivated, "progressive" goals with SAAGs he labeled "mercenaries."

"Nonpartisan, in that you need just promise to use the mercenaries to advance 'progressive' climate legal positions," he said. "So, partisan? Perish the thought. It's merely ideological."

Presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris has previously called to ban fracking, a main driver of energy and jobs in Pennsylvania, but she has walked that back in recent weeks after becoming the presumptive nominee.

Dan Weaver, president and executive director of the Pennsylania Independent Oil & Gas Association told Fox News Digital that his organization "believes elected officials who have expressed past concerns with oil and natural gas development, even to the extent of banning all hydraulic fracturing in the U.S., gain an entirely new perspective on the importance of these energy sources to our nation when they are presented with facts from objective sources rather than emotional appeals on the campaign trail."

"The facts are simple and compelling: natural gas produces more than one-third of our nation’s electricity, and there is no viable or economical option to replace that amount of energy that consumers demand, as well as to meet the forecasted significant increase in demand from data centers and economic growth," he continued.

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"American-produced oil refined into gasoline and diesel here in the U.S. currently fuels 98 percent of our vehicle fleet, a general trend that will continue for many years, and replacing that with oil imported from other countries would be expensive and uncertain. Finally, with more than 6,000 consumer, medical and transportation-related products only made possible through the processing of oil and natural gas, their role in supporting a modern society cannot be dismissed with a sound bite about ‘banning fracking.’"

Weaver added that "PIOGA believes Gov. Shapiro, just like Senator John Fetterman and Vice-President Kamala Harris, among many others, conclude that oil and natural gas are essential to our nation when provided with those facts."

Fox News Digital reached out to Shapiro's office for comment but did not receive a response.

Fox News Digital's Tyler Olson contributed to this report.