This article was produced by Capital and principal. We publish it here with permission.
As President-elect Donald Trump focuses directly on federal climate policy, states and their attorneys general they are preparing for battle. In California, the governor asked lawmakers for $25 million to push back against any Trump efforts to defeat the state’s climate-friendly initiatives. In Washington, voters doubled their support for the state’s landmark climate policy, and Jay Inslee – the outgoing governor – said his successor would work strenuous to protect the state from a fossil fuel-friendly president.
But in Pennsylvania, one of the nation’s biggest energy producers where voters narrowly voted for Trump, it’s unclear how robust that resistance will be if the up-to-date president follows through on his vows to dismantle President Biden’s environmental agenda and defund neat energy design.
One clue can be found in the person voters chose to be the state’s up-to-date attorney general – Dave Sunday, a Republican who was largely still on environmental issues in the run-up to the election but benefited from a vast infusion of money tied to the fossil fuel industry, to fuel his campaign.
And although Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro has taken on the oil and gas industry then-President Trump when he was attorney general, one of Sunday’s first moves was to appoint a prominent oil and gas producer to his transition team.
State campaign finance records and Internal Revenue Service filings show direct contributions were accepted Sunday from a tax-exempt association with ties to the fossil fuel industry called the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA).
Direct contributions total approximately $550,000 sailed through to Sunday through Keystone Prosperity PAC, a political action committee formed by RAGA. In 2024, RAGA received at least $1.6 million from fossil fuel and petrochemical companies, utilities and trade groups, including ExxonMobil, Chevron Phillips Chemical, the National Mining Association, the American Gas Association and the American Petroleum Institute.
The Republican Attorneys General Association also received contributions from smaller fossil fuel companies with activities specific to Pennsylvania. Diversified Oil and Gas Co., which owns numerous low-producing oil and gas wells, many in Pennsylvania, and which come under fire for its financial reporting mechanisms, it donated $15,000 to RAGA in June. Equitrans, which recently merged with the Pittsburgh-based company EQT gas companyhe donated $50,000 in April. RAGA then donated funds to Sunday at two payments: $400,000 in July and $150,000 in September. As of September 24, these were the two largest donations to the Sunday campaign this year.
“RAGA’s early commitment to Pennsylvania has paid off and turned out to be one of our smartest investments to date,” said Republican Attorneys General Association Executive Director Peter Bisbee in a speech statement after Sunday’s victory. The organization, he said, “made a record investment in Pennsylvania this year.”
Niedziela also received a handful of direct contributions from oil and gas related entities, including $10,000 from Koch Industries PAC; $1,500 from the Pennsylvania Petroleum Coalition; $1,000 from a mid-sized oil and gas company Energy Transfer; and $1,000 from Pennsylvania Coal PAC.
“While we as Pennsylvanians go about our lives, we hope our government is working to protect us from drinking and inhaling toxic chemicals,” said Michael Bagdes-Canning, a member of Pennsylvania Action on Climate, a grassroots coalition of climate and anti-climate advocates corruption. – But in Harrisburg [the state capital]The fossil fuel industry is busy, behind the scenes and under the covers, transforming its expansive wealth into the political power it needs to protect and grow that wealth.”
Capital & Main reached out to the Sunday campaign and had not received a response by press time.
Among those Sunday who helped him transition to become the state’s first Republican attorney general in 12 years is former Gov. Tom Corbett, who became notable for his for drilling position during the state’s fracking boom. Before becoming governor, Corbett was attorney general and while in office accepted gifts related to the oil and gas industry.
Climate battle lines
From California to Pennsylvania, the role of the state’s top law enforcement official could be crucial for states that intend to push back against Trump’s promises to remove regulations and initiatives aimed at accelerating the transition away from fossil fuels.
“When people who care about the environment and climate lose the presidency to someone who is clearly as radically opposed to environmental and climate action as possible, we turn to the states,” said Joseph Romm, senior research fellow at the Pennsylvania Center for Science, Sustainability and Media.
As some line up to sue Trump’s policies, as well as corporations that violate the law in their states, Republican attorneys general vigorous in RAGA will likely take a different tack.
The Republican Attorneys General Association was founded in 1999 to elect Republicans as attorneys general across the country and “defend the rule of law,” its website states. Currently the organization has 28 member statesalthough Pennsylvania is not yet one of them. Shapiro served as attorney general until 2022, and Democrat Michelle Henry took office in 2022 acting role in January 2023. She decided not to run for office in 2024, which opened the floodgates to a crowded primary election.
RAGA spearheaded legal challenges regarding main environmental protection rules during Biden’s term. He also led A automatic calling campaign four years ago, he called for taking part in the January 6 rally in Washington, which turned into an attack on the Capitol. The organization receives contributions from industry and companies of all sizes, and many of them receive invitations to national conferences where they can gain time for a face with prosecutors general. Access to conferences is graduated depending on the amount donated by the donor. On the 2018 benefits list, $15,000 provided the company with two passes, among other benefits, and $125,000 provided the company with five passes, invitations to dinners and club events, and the opportunity to serve on panels.
“We have state attorneys general who never really even assess what ordinary people in the state want,” said Lisa Graves, founder of True North Research, a political research firm. “Instead [they] they’re rubbing elbows, hanging out, going on these little mini-vacations with industry lobbyists who have an exclusive opportunity to bend their ear.”
The Republican Attorneys General Association does not file records of its contributions to the Federal Election Commission, but to the Internal Revenue Service. These donations can then be made to individual candidates in contested attorney general races in different states, thus obfuscating their origins. An outsider has no way of knowing whether a company has earmarked a RAGA donation to a specific attorney general candidate, for example.
“I think they’re trying to hide their involvement,” Romm said of companies that funnel money through RAGA.
In 2017, the Wall Street Journal. reported that by donating to Democratic and Republican Governors’ Associations, which operate similarly to RAGA, donors have the opportunity to informally allocate their contributions to a specific candidate.
“RAGA is one of the tentacles of an effort by right-wing billionaires and the fossil fuel industry to take over our courts and government to benefit the interests of large corporations,” said U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island Guardian in August.
Keystone Prosperity PAC’s donations to Sunday represented approximately 26% of its overall direct contributions and 83% of its direct contributions from political action committees. Pennsylvania in the spotlight reported in October, the Keystone Prosperity PAC also spent $5.4 million running ads on Sunday calling its opponent, Eugene DePasquale, “out of touch” and chiding him for his stance on immigration and police reform. The level of PAC spending has raised alarm within the DePasquale campaign, which on Sunday did not disclose the sources of the donations.
For his part, DePasquale received about $1.6 million from the Democratic Attorneys General Association, which received contributions from some of the same fossil fuel entities that donated to RAGA, though in smaller amounts. For example, where U.S. fuel and petrochemical producers gave $92,500 to RAGA, it gave $25,000 to DAGA. Where the American Gas Association donated $40,000 to RAGA, DAGA contributed just $15,000.
Sunday’s campaign platform gave no indication of what specific tactics it would take on climate. Originally from Harrisburg she ran a campaign primarily on a “tough on crime” platform to reduce prison recidivism and address the state’s opioid crisis through the philosophy of “responsibility and redemption”
DePasquale was once deputy secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection, and w 2019authored a report that found climate change is costing Pennsylvania hundreds of millions of dollars a year. This made the Pennsylvania attorney general race one of… most crucial for the climate according to E&E News.
So where do state environmental groups go from here?
“We’re going to stay positive and optimistic until we have a reason not to,” Jen Quinn, director of legislative and policy affairs for Sierra Club Pennsylvania, said of Sunday’s election. Still, she said having an environmental advocate at the helm of the attorney general’s office could have deterred polluters – it’s not yet clear whether Sunday will fill that role.
“I think just having someone there to be strong on certain issues is helpful,” Quinn said. “If we see that a lot of special interest money is going to be used to support it, you just have to wonder what are the long-term implications of that?”
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