10 state AG races to watch on climate and energy – E&E News by POLITICO

Ten States Prepare for Attorney General Elections

Ten states are gearing up to elect the legal officials who will duke it out in court on their behalf on issues such as the nation’s response to climate change and the transition to renewable fuels.

Many of those states are expected to welcome a new leader into the attorney general’s office — including West Virginia, where Republican Patrick Morrisey, who has challenged nearly every Biden administration climate rule — is leaving his post to run for governor.

Unlike attorney general races in states like Pennsylvania and North Carolina, West Virginia’s election is not expected to be competitive. Morrisey will most likely be replaced by another Republican who would take a similar tack against climate and energy policies advanced by a potential Harris administration.

It’s less about the individual and “more about the sharper polarization and growing activism of them as a group,” Paul Nolette, director of Marquette University’s Les Aspin Center for Government, said of the state attorneys general. “I fully expect any slack from Morrisey leaving for the governorship will be quickly taken up by someone else.”

If former President Donald Trump retakes the White House, however, Democratic state attorneys general are expected to play the leading role in challenging anticipated environmental rule rollbacks.

“You will see the opposite side really immediately gearing up,” Nolette said. “That’s the new style of attorney general activism that wasn’t present even 10 years ago.”

In litigation over national environmental policies, attorneys general can increase their power by teaming up with their counterparts in other states to file multi-state lawsuits against the federal government.

They’re often successful. Data compiled by Nolette show that Republican attorneys general have prevailed in nearly 76 percent of their lawsuits against the Biden administration, and Democrats won 83 percent of their cases against Trump.

Some attorneys general have leveraged those victories in campaigns for higher office. Harris, for example, is the former attorney general of California.

Decisions about which state leads a multi-state lawsuit is determined by the expertise of the staff in the offices, said Nolette. States such as West Virginia, California and New York have cultivated staff with experience in energy and environmental issues.

Attorney general elections are important because they decide — and potentially flip, if a new political party takes hold of the office — the position a state takes in litigation.

Depending on the laws of a given state, an attorney general can even pursue litigation that a governor of a different party would not necessarily favor, said Robert Percival, director of the environmental law program at the University of Maryland.

He noted that along with Morrisey, several other Republican state attorneys general have sought to make a splash by suing over environmental regulations or pushing back against efforts to hold the oil industry financially accountable for climate change.

“Cases like these are political theater designed to embellish the attorneys’ general MAGA credentials for future office,” Percival said.

Climate and Energy Issues in the 10 State Attorney General Races

1. West Virginia

   With Morrisey running for governor, West Virginia is among a handful of states that are guaranteed to elect a new top attorney in November.

   The state attorney general’s office has gained national notoriety under Morrisey, who has led red state challenges of Obama- and Biden-era environmental regulations. The state scored a high-profile Supreme Court victory in West Virginia v. EPA in 2022 that invalidated an Obama-era climate rule for the power sector.

   Morrisey’s replacement will inherit West Virginia’s challenge to the Biden administration’s replacement of the Obama power plant rule.

   The favorite to replace Morrisey is state auditor and fellow Republican John “J.B.” McCuskey. He has campaigned on increasing government efficiency and defending the coal industry.

   “We need elected officials who want to invest in the future of West Virginia and energy independence and put an end to the overreach and overregulation from Washington’s elite,” he said.

   McCuskey’s challenger, Democrat Teresa Toriseva, is a lawyer who has been sharply critical of Morrisey and has touted her own record defending landowners against energy companies.

   “Patrick Morrisey has run the office for Patrick Morrissey’s own political best interest,” Toriseva told the West Virginia Record this month.

2. Oregon

   Ellen Rosenblum, a Democrat, is not running for reelection after serving three terms as Oregon attorney general.

   Democrat Dan Rayfield, an Oregon representative and a former state House speaker, will vie for the open seat against Republican Will Lathrop, a former county prosecutor and international human rights worker.

   Democrats have held the Oregon attorney general’s for decades and are expected to retain it.

   Rosenblum has not yet joined other state governments in suing the oil industry to help foot the costs of responding to climate change. But her allies have nudged her to do so, saying the lawsuits are an key tool to hold companies accountable for planet-warming emissions.

   Rayfield on his website has promised to tackle climate change and “hold polluters accountable.” Lathrop has said his priorities include reducing crime and addressing drug trafficking.

3. Montana

   Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, a Republican, is facing a challenge from Democrat Ben Alke, a lawyer.

   The incumbent, who is leading Montana’s opposition to the first successful U.S. youth-led climate lawsuit, is favored to win the red state.

   In a recent interview with the Montana Free Press, Knudsen said that defending state laws has increasingly become a focus for his office as “special interest groups seek to overturn the laws duly passed by the state Legislature.”

   Knudsen, who said public safety is his top priority, pointed to energy development as an area where he’s worked with other Republicans to fight the Biden administration. He has said Montana “can’t afford to have an attorney general who will let the federal government run roughshod over our rights.”

   Alke has also pointed to fighting crime as a priority, but said he’d focus on state, rather than national, issues.

   Montana Conservation Voters has endorsed Alke, noting his legal work to reopen roads to maintain access to public lands. Alke is a member of the Montana Land Board, a group of elected officials that acquires and manages state lands.

   The race got a jolt less than two weeks out from Election Day when a state panel unanimously recommended that Knudsen be suspended from practicing law for 90 days because of accusations that his office violated the ethical code for lawyers while representing the state Legislature.

   Knudsen, who has 30 days to file an objection, has defended his handling of a long-running legal dispute between the Legislature and the judicial branch, saying the complaint against him was the result of a politically motivated attack.

   Alke posted a story from the Daily Montanan that said that under the state Constitution, the attorney general must be an attorney in good standing. “Vote Alke to restore integrity and the rule of law,” Alke wrote on X.

4. Pennsylvania

   In one of the more competitive state attorney general races this year, former Democratic state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale and Republican York County District Attorney Dave Sunday are running to replace incumbent Michelle Henry.

   Henry was appointed in 2022 by Josh Shapiro, a Democrat who left the attorney general’s office after he was elected governor. Henry has chosen not to run for reelection.

   Crime and other issues have dominated the campaign in Pennsylvania, but DePasquale’s website cites environmental justice as among his top priorities.

   Pennsylvania has also become a focal point in the climate liability litigation. Bucks County outside Philadelphia in March became the first Pennsylvania locale to sue the fossil fuel industry for the effects of climate change, arguing that oil executives misled the public for decades about the dangers of burning fossil fuels.

   As auditor, DePasquale in 2019 published a report that found global warming had cost Pennsylvania hundreds of millions of dollars a year and concluded that the state must come up with a better plan to address the effects of climate change.

   On his first day as auditor, he announced an investigation into whether the state was adequately protecting its environmental resources in the wake of the shale gas boom.

   DePasquale, who spent three years as deputy secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, helped secure the state’s Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards Act. The statute requires electricity companies to sell a specific percentage of power from alternative sources.

   Sunday’s website does not mention climate change. He has no record of speaking about climate change or environmental policies, according to a recent analysis by the Philadelphia Citizen.

5. Indiana

   Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, a Republican who has been active in several multistate challenges against the Biden administration, is facing a challenge from Democrat Destiny Wells, former deputy attorney general for the state.

   Rokita joined Morrisey in a challenge to EPA’s rule targeting emissions from existing coal-fired power plants and new gas facilities.

   He’s also led Republican coalitions to oppose the cities, counties and states that are filing climate liability lawsuits against the oil industry. In 2022 he called on the Supreme Court to quash the cases, dubbing them a “menace to coherent law, politically accountable government, and federalism.”

   In a recent debate, he said his office has protected the state from “bad ideas” from the federal government, including the never-enacted “Green New Deal,” which he said would “jack up [Indiana’s] electric prices.”

   Wells has been endorsed by the Hoosier Chapter of the Sierra Club and pledged that under her leadership “the Indiana environment will have a voice.”

   She has criticized her competitor’s treatment of an Indiana physician who drew national attention in 2022 after providing an abortion to a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio. The state Medical Licensing Board at Rokita’s request fined and reprimanded the physician for speaking to a reporter about the case. Rokita was publicly reprimanded by the Indiana Supreme Court.

6. Washington

   Democrat Nick Brown, former legal counsel to Gov. Jay Inslee, is running for Washington attorney general against Republican Pete Serrano, a local mayor and former environmental attorney at the U.S. Energy Department’s Hanford site.

   They’re vying for a seat vacated by state Bob Ferguson, a Democrat who is running for governor. Ferguson, like Rosenblum in Oregon, has been friendly to environmental interests but faced scrutiny for not suing the oil industry over climate change.

   Serrano has sued the state and the federal government over Covid-19 restrictions and has unsuccessfully challenged Washington gun laws.

   His website says that as attorney general, he would continue his “trajectory of environmental stewardship while embracing and promoting clean, efficient energy solutions.”

   Brown, who resigned as U.S. attorney for Western Washington to run for office, on his website has included climate change and environmental protection as among his priorities.

   He wrote that “the next generation, including my own kids, needs an Attorney General who will prioritize the fight against climate change.”

7. Missouri

   Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a Republican, faces a challenge from Democrat Elad Gross.

   Bailey is running for the seat for the first time. He was appointed to the office in January 2023 by Republican Gov. Mike Parson to replace Eric Schmitt, who had been elected to the U.S. Senate.

   Bailey led an unsuccessful challenge of the Biden administration’s use of interim formulas that calculate the societal costs of greenhouse gas emissions. After the Supreme Court rebuffed the effort in 2023, Bailey vowed to “continue to combat government overreach at every turn.”

   Gross, a former assistant attorney general, has said on his website that he would create a Conservation Division within the office to replace what was once an Agricultural and Environmental Division.

   He said the division would protect waterways, land and air from pollution, as well as “help ensure that our state’s natural resources are passed down to the next generation.”

   Gross said he’d also rejoin a national network of attorneys general to coordinate enforcement against polluters and hold DOE accountable for ongoing effects from Manhattan Project work conducted in Missouri.

8. Vermont

   Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark, a Democrat who was elected in 2022 with 65 percent of the vote, is facing a challenge from Republican Ture Nelson, a town selectman, town administrator and former federal investigator.

   Clark is heavily favored to retain the seat, which has been held by Democrats since 1996.

   Clark has defended Vermont’s 2021 climate liability lawsuit, which alleges that oil and gas companies violated state law by deceiving the public about climate change.

   Vermont’s next attorney general is also likely to defend a new law that directs the state to seek potentially billions of dollars from fossil fuel companies to pay for climate impacts.

   Nelson’s website calls for bringing the state Legislature “under control,” arguing that lawmakers have passed bills — including the carbon tax law — that “place the burden of defending the state” on the attorney general’s office.

   On her website, Clark noted that she has sued agribusiness giant Monsanto for chemical contamination and said she hopes that her environmental work will be a key part of her legacy.

9. Utah

   There are a number of contenders to replace Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes, a Republican who has led efforts to get the federal government to give the state control over public lands.

   Reyes announced he would not seek reelection after he faced scrutiny for his relationship to Tim Ballard, who founded the anti-child trafficking organization Operation Underground Railroad and has faced sexual abuse allegations.

   Republican candidate Derek Brown is a lawyer and former chair of the Utah Republican Party who has touted his commitment to fighting against overreach from the federal government. He has also said he would work to protect Utah’s access to its natural resources to “restore American energy independence.”

   Democrat Rudy Bautista is a criminal defense lawyer, who had previously run for attorney general as a libertarian.

   In a recent debate, Bautista said he was running because he had had enough of the “good old boy system” in the attorney general’s office.

   “We need someone in the attorney general’s office who understands that the job is one thing only, and that is to protect and serve the people of the state,” he said.

   Other candidates in the race are Michelle Quist of the United Utah Party; W. Andrew McCullough, a libertarian; and Austin Hepworth, who is unaffiliated.

10. North Carolina

    Two sitting U.S. House members — Republican Dan Bishop and Democrat Jeff Jackson — are squaring off in a close race to replace outgoing Democratic North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein.

    Bishop, who has represented the state’s 8th District since 2019, told Fox 8 WGHP this month that he chose to leave his safe seat, despite Republicans’ poor record at winning attorney general races.

    “That was a huge factor in my deciding to leave Congress because I knew I could put the resources together to stay competitive,” Bishop said. “We’ll win this race this year, I’m convinced.”

    The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) gave Bishop a zero percent score in 2023 for voting in Congress against bills aimed at protecting the environment.

    Jackson, a former state senator, is currently representing North Carolina’s 14th District. He has said that as attorney general, he would be an “independent voice” for his state.

    LCV endorsed Jackson’s run for Congress in 2022, calling him a climate and environmental justice champion in the state Senate for his record introducing and co-sponsoring legislation that advanced clean energy and electric vehicles. The group gave him a 100 percent score last year.

    Jackson has said one of his priorities as attorney general would be to force polluters to pay for contamination.

    “The Attorney General must be a good steward of the land by ensuring a clear and predictable approach to its defense,” he said on his campaign website.

This story also appears in Energywire.

SDGs, Targets, and Indicators Analysis

1. Which SDGs are addressed or connected to the issues highlighted in the article?

• SDG 13: Climate Action
• SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
• SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions

The article discusses the role of state attorneys general in addressing climate change and energy policies, which are directly related to SDG 13 (Climate Action) and SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy). It also mentions the use of multi-state lawsuits and the impact of attorney general elections on the position a state takes in litigation, which are connected to SDG 16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions).

2. What specific targets under those SDGs can be identified based on the article’s content?

• SDG 13.2: Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies, and planning
• SDG 7.2: Increase the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix
• SDG 16.3: Promote the rule of law at the national and international levels and ensure equal access to justice for all

Based on the article’s content, the specific targets that can be identified are SDG 13.2, which focuses on integrating climate change measures into national policies, strategies, and planning; SDG 7.2, which aims to increase the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix; and SDG 16.3, which promotes the rule of law and equal access to justice.

3. Are there any indicators mentioned or implied in the article that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets?

• Number of multi-state lawsuits filed by state attorneys general against the federal government
• Success rate of state attorneys general in their lawsuits against the federal government
• Number of state attorneys general with expertise in energy and environmental issues
• Number of attorney general elections won by candidates with a focus on climate change and energy policies

The article mentions the number of multi-state lawsuits filed by state attorneys general against the federal government and the success rates of these lawsuits, which can be used as indicators to measure progress towards SDG 16.3. Additionally, the article highlights the importance of expertise in energy and environmental issues among state attorneys general, as well as the focus on climate change and energy policies in attorney general elections. These can be used as indicators to measure progress towards SDG 13.2 and SDG 7.2.

Table: SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

Source: eenews.net