The powerful donors fueling the climate litigation campaign got their money’s worth out of yesterday’s Los Angeles Times column. The piece featured the primary actors of the coordinated campaign, highlighting ‘media outlets,’ law clinics, and a public relations initiative – all with direct ties to the Rockefellers and their network of powerful allies.

Energy in Depth has uncovered each of these ties over the years, but it’s still remarkable to see all of them woven into one piece.

The Author: Academic or spokeswoman for climate litigation?

Ann Carlson is a professor at UCLA Law School’s Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, which has hosted numerous events in support of climate litigation. In addition to her position at UCLA, Carlson serves as a consultant for Sher Edling in their lawsuits against energy companies, undermining any perceived notion of independent academic analysis of the litigation. While the Times acknowledged Carlson “provides pro bono consulting to some of the plaintiffs in climate litigation,” they fail to disclose her direct involvement in very cases discussed throughout the column.

Carlson recently appeared besides Vic Sher, the lead plaintiffs’ attorney at Sher Edling, at an event in Hawaii. The event was co-hosted by the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI), a public affairs initiative which seeks to hold “climate polluters accountable” and has coordinated with lawyers to lobby municipalities on climate litigation.

UCLA’s network of powerful donors

UCLA’s Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment is funded by several multi-million-dollar grants from Dan Emmett, an environmentalist who also funds a similar clinic at Harvard University. In 2016, Harvard’s clinic hosted a workshop for attorneys general, academics, and activists like UCLA’s own Cara Horowitz, to discuss climate litigation. UCLA’s Emmett Institute also receives generous support from Andrew Sabin, who funds Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. A self-described “Rockefeller Republican,” Sabin has a close relationship with the Rockefeller family and funds academics at Yale, Columbia, and UCLA – three of the most prominent institutions involved in climate litigation.

Promoting activist propaganda as attribution science.

Carlson conveniently promotes CCI’s most recent PR stunt in her op-ed – a Rockefeller-funded landing page urging communities to “Make Big Oil Pay,” which masquerades as a sea level rise attribution ‘study’. As EID found, this report was not only funded by the Rockefeller Family Fund, it was also designed by some of its premier activist institutions.

The report’s projections were calculated by Climate Central, who’s research branch was formerly directed by CCI’s leader, Richard Wiles. Representatives of Climate Central attended the infamous La Jolla conference in 2012 and conducted key studies under Wiles’ tenure that were later cited in the climate lawsuits brought by Sher Edling.

The “Evidence”: Rockefeller Funded News Outlet

Carlson attempts to provide “substantial evidence that oil and gas company executives created campaigns to convince the public that climate change was not a threat,” by linking to the original “Exxon Knew” articles. The series was published by InsideClimate New (ICN) and paid for by the Rockefeller Family Fund.

The Newspaper: Stories Paid for By Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

She further attempts to substantiate her claims by linking back to “reporting” by the Los Angeles Times, which alongside ICN’s series, served as a catalyst for the climate litigation campaign. Recall that these stories were not actually written by the LA Times, but rather the Columbia School of Journalism.

Who funded the series? That’s right, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Rockefeller Family Fund, as Energy in Depth uncovered. While the original series carries a funding disclaimer, Carlson’s piece omits the network of powerful donors backing her column.

In the end, this week’s Los Angeles Times column is just the latest in a series of PR stunts by the highlight coordinated climate litigation campaign – brought to you by the Rockefeller network: