A Michael Bloomberg-backed fellowship program known for placing attorneys in state attorney general offices to spearhead climate litigation has quietly broadened its scope, sending staffers to work in state agencies that regulate the energy sector, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.
The New York University State Energy & Environmental Impact Center’s fellowship—which Bloomberg’s eponymous philanthropic nonprofit provided two seed grants worth $5.6 million in 2017—has long placed and paid the salaries of officials in at least 10 state attorney general offices nationwide. Over the past two years, internal emails obtained by the Free Beacon show, the program has expanded to state-level public service commissions, often-overlooked agencies that regulate utility companies and permit energy infrastructure like pipelines and power plants. The commissions also implement state renewable energy standards that force power providers to generate electricity through pricier green sources.
The center’s work in attorney general offices, where Bloomberg-funded fellows have participated in litigation accusing the fossil fuel industry of causing global warming, has prompted conflict-of-interest concerns
One other key function of the commissions that has emerged in recent years is their oversight and implementation of state renewable energy standards, which are mandates that force power companies to ensure green energy sources produce a set share of local electric generation. Climate activists have lobbied for such mandates, but in places like Delaware those policies have caused dramatic consumer price hikes.
The NYU impact center’s work in attorney general offices has been reported on and has faced criticism for blurring ethical lines—experts have warned the arrangement presents a conflict of interest since it involves the use of private funding to support government positions. Its work in state regulatory agencies, on the other hand, is a new development and suggests the center and its funders seek to play a more active role pushing green energy development at the local level.
“That presents fundamental conflicts of interest,” American Tort Reform Association president Sherman Joyce told the Free Beacon in an interview. “The notion of looking to outside entities to fund the structure and activities of the government is just wrong. These types of arrangements, I think, offend basic notions of the independence of government.”
The NYU impact center and Advanced Energy United, a green energy industry coalition cofounded by left-wing billionaire Tom Steyer, began recruiting state commissions to participate in the initiative in mid-2023, according to emails reviewed by the Free Beacon. The groups gauged the interest of New York’s Department of Public Service in July 2023, the Michigan Public Service Commission in August 2023, and Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities in September 2023.
“I wanted to sure [sic] this is on someone’s screen, so we can take advantage of this opportunity for free resources,” Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities chairman James Van Nostrand wrote in a Sept. 5, 2023, email forwarding Advanced Energy United’s message to colleagues.
Van Nostrand said the agency’s office overseeing the connection of green energy sources to the power grid may be a “good spot for an NYU fellow.” Department of Public Utilities administrative official Theresa Kelly responded to the chairman, saying they had a “plan to proceed.”
While it remains unclear if the NYU impact center ultimately placed a fellow in the Massachusetts, New York, or Michigan agencies, the center has managed to install at least two fellows in the Louisiana Public Service Commission. Those fellows were hired to work for Louisiana public service commissioner Davante Lewis (D.).
The Louisiana commission, like other public service commissions, has wide powers to develop a renewable portfolio standard, which would implement a green energy transition. The Bayou State is one of a few states that do not yet have such a standard, the Grist previously reported.
Lewis—who unseated a longtime incumbent on the commission in 2022 with the help of a powerful left-wing climate PAC, according to state campaign finance disclosures—promised to promote the adoption of rooftop solar and home batteries, and boost wind power. And he ran on a platform centered on forcing a 100 percent green energy transition in the state.
The first of Lewis’s NYU fellows was Annie Matthews, a former law clerk for the Biden Agriculture Department’s environment division. She joined Lewis’s office in September 2023 as a special policy adviser on climate change and departed the role after one year. She now works for an environmental law firm in Louisiana.
The 2023 employee contract between the NYU impact center and Lewis’s office confirmed that the center would fund the position and stated that Matthews would be assigned tasks “relating to clean energy, climate change, and environmental matters of regional and national importance.”
In February, Lewis announced during a commission meeting that he had hired a new NYU fellow: Rula Thabata, a DEI activist, former policy fellow at a Muslim advocacy group, and recent graduate of Loyola University Chicago School of Law. A job posting for the role echoed the 2023 contract, stating that the fellow would be sponsored by the NYU impact center and handle regulatory matters related to the “clean energy future, climate change, [and] energy justice.”
Louisiana attorney general Liz Murrill (R.) told the Free Beacon that she has serious concerns with the arrangement and Lewis’s participation in the program considering its outside funding. She suggested that the arrangement may violate existing state ethics laws.
“This arrangement, if in fact it is happening, certainly causes me to be concerned,” Murrill said in a written statement. “Ethics laws prohibit state employees from receiving payment from sources other than the state for their official duties. Narrow exceptions apply for things like reimbursement for attendance at conferences, but that still requires approval and disclosure.”
“My office does not have jurisdiction over ethics violations, but I would have issues with what is essentially a Bloomberg employee and agent having such influence and access to state regulatory offices and matters,” she continued.
The region Lewis represents is also home to petrochemical facilities that activists have sought to shut down. Michael Bloomberg’s foundation Bloomberg Philanthropies launched Beyond Petrochemicals, an anti-petrochemical initiative, in 2022, which is particularly active in the region.
“Bloomberg’s group has furiously charged back into the business of placing privately hired activists in government to advance its benefactor’s priorities,” said Chris Horner, an attorney for the watchdog group Government Accountability & Oversight (GAO).
“Bloomberg has poured tens of millions of dollars into providing ‘staff’ to various government agencies—including most notably state utility regulatory commissions, which, like his attorney general push, can impede reliable energy needed to keep our lights on and economy going, and help force more of the ‘unreliables’ into our system.”
The internal emails and documents reviewed by the Free Beacon were first obtained by GAO.
Jessica Bell, the NYU impact center’s deputy director, said the center is nonpartisan and offers the fellowship to public utility commissions for the purpose of addressing capacity needs by providing resources. “Public utility commissions interview, select, and manage fellows as they would any employee. Their sole duty of loyalty is to the office in which they work, not to the Center or NYU.”
“Public utility commissions have an important role in ensuring affordable, reliable energy for everyone, but are often woefully under-resourced and under-staffed,” said Advanced Energy United spokesman Adam Winer. “We’ve helped spread the word about commission job openings, including those through the State Impact Center, but don’t have any involvement in hiring.”
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