The 16 Democratic Attorneys General who plan to use their subpoena power to target oil companies and utilities in a fight over global warming have run into a buzz saw with Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a man who calls a spade a spade.
“This is all about trying to take the courts and the authority of the attorney general’s office and impose policy upon people across the country to criminalize free speech,” said Pruitt in a Tuesday morning interview on the Hugh Hewitt nationally syndicated radio show.
He attacked the far left and environmentalists as well as Democratic attorneys general who have singled out ExxonMobil. Pruitt charged that environmentalists, including former Vice President Al Gore conspired months in advance of their late March announcement.
“There are emails that have been discovered that environmental groups have been communicating with these attorneys general in advance and liken this approach to the tobacco litigation in an effort to try and leverage the industry for money,” said Pruitt.
In the March announcement, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said state officials were committed to working together on key climate-related initiatives including investigations into ExxonMobil and other firms.
“To target one specific company in one specific industry and say the subpoena power of the state is going to be used to discover documents and other information to try to intimidate and coerce and threaten that person’s speech or that entity’s speech is quite breathtaking,” added Pruitt.
He didn’t let up on attacking the left.
“They’re using the power of the regulatory agency at the federal level to bypass Congress and now they’re using state attorneys general to try to take these very aggressive steps and it’s absolutely wrong,” said Pruitt.
Listen to Hugh Hewitt’s interview of Pruitt.
