Government Accountability and Oversight (GAO)

Background

Government Accountability and Oversight (GAO) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit launched in the beginning of 2018 by “experienced attorneys from the litigation, prosecutorial and classical liberal think tank worlds.”¹

According to its website, “GAO will engage in litigation to protect public interests in economic liberty where taxing or permitting activities, property right restrictions and other extant or proposed regulatory or other policy impediments threaten to limit those interests.”²

GAO launched Climate Litigation Watch in May 2018, a project to target those investigating ExxonMobil and other oil companies’ knowledge about climate change. Climate Litigation Watch describes GAO as follows:³

“Government Accountability & Oversight (GAO) is a non-profit public interest law firm created by, among others, individuals who have been most instrumental in bringing the public records exposing these AGs’ abuses to light. As this audacious legal assault ramps up still further, entering its third year, GAO through its project Climate Litigation Watch will shine a light on the campaign’s origins, its leadership and its tactics.

“Documents will serve as the antidote to the climate campaigners’ ad hominem attacks, time-worn talking points and half-baked scientific analysis. How did this effort come about, with whose impetus, when? Public records show the answers to these questions, and Climate Litigation Watch is now organizing them for easy search and education, a function that has been sorely lacing [sic] to date as a way to allow the public to learn for themselves. If you want to understand the campaign behind these investigations and lawsuits, these are the organic documents, providing the background information, and news stories and analyses you might have missed in the legacy media’s enthusiastic promotion of the campaign.”

One of the key figures behind GAO and Climate Litigation Watch is Chris Horner, a lawyer with a history of working for the coal industry who has claimed global temperatures haven’t been increasing for at least 25 years.⁴ According to The Daily Caller, Horner is “one of the key figures spearheading the ClimateLitigationWatch project.”⁵

Horner works as a Senior Legal Fellow for the Energy and Environment Legal Institute (E&E Legal), formerly the American Tradition Institute, where he “provides strategic and legal counsel on cases involving Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) filings and government transparency.” He is also a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI).⁶ In 2016, E&E Legal issued a complaint to Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell, requesting a turn over of documents discussing climate change deniers. An answer to that complaint is posted on the Climate Litigation Watch website. ⁷

J. Gregory Garrison, a member of GAO’s Board of Directors, has described climate change as “a hoax, a snare, and a delusion always.” Garrison is a partner at the Garrison Law Firm, LLC and a former legal analyst for CBS News. He also worked as a radio host at Indianapolis’s WIBC, where he replaced “longtime friend” Mike Pence.⁸

Matthew D. Hardin also sits on GAO’s Board of Directors.⁹ GAO’s address listed at GuideStar is,¹⁰ according to public records, also registered to a house Hardin purchased in late 2017.¹¹ Hardin was elected Greene County’s next Commonwealth’s Attorney in 2018. He proudly lists among his accomplishments open records requests related to the Paris Accord under the Obama administration. “I believe in the Constitution and your rights to be free from overbearing government,” Hardin writes. “I’ve been a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, even teaching free concealed carry classes since 2014.”¹²

Separately from the nonprofit GAO with a listed Virginia address, business filings at the Departmant of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs indicate a “Government Accountability and Oversight” was also incorporated in Washington, D.C., on April 10, 2018 with Chris Horner listed as CEO. The address on record is a shared office space in Minnesota.¹³

Chris Horner has said that he worked closely with Matt Hardin “on various legal issues for the past three years” with various groups Horner is involved with. Horner officially endorsed Hardin for Commonwealth’s Attorney in 2017.¹⁴

Climate Litigation Watch

The Climate Litigation Watch website claims “Its sole purpose is to ensure the public record about this explosion of litigation, in the name of ‘climate accountability,’ is complete so as to allow a more honest, fact-driven and well-informed debate.” To achieve this, it would post “commentaries and analysis, posting and placing in context important information gleaned from Freedom of information Act (FOIA) requests.”¹⁵

“Burning witches was an absurd response then, and today’s modern equivalent will be viewed in future years as an equally misguided response,” Climate Litigation Watch writes of the investigation into oil companies.

It describes the investigations as “a perversion of the justice system and particularly of chief law enforcement offices, state attorneys general” with the supposed goal to “to conjure a history of illegal conduct in order to advance an extremist policy agenda and fulfill a vision of an energy-starved world.”¹⁶

Stance on Climate Change

Climate Litigation Watch refers to a “climate that is always changing,” downplaying the impact of humans on climate change and subtly suggest increasing wealth and adapting to climate change as a strategy:¹⁷

“Misuse of the judicial system in the face of their agenda having failed through the proper, democratic process will not yield the practical responses the world needs as it faces a climate that is always changing, which change the wealthiest societies have always adapted to best.”

Funding

GAO does not publicly list its funding sources. Chris Horner, one of the key individuals working with both GAO and its Climate Litigation Watch Project, was named in Alpha Natural Resources’ bankruptcy documents. A January 11, 2016 document listed Horner as Regulatory Counsel for the coal company. The Wall Street Journal reported Horner was paid at least $18,600 before the group declared bankruptcy.¹⁸ The Free Market Environmental Law Clinic, also an Alpha creditor, paid Horner $110,000 in 2014, $115,865 in 2013, and $60,449 in 2012, according to the clinic’s tax filings.¹⁹ ²⁰

Murray Energy Funding

Murray Energy bankruptcy filings in 2019 revealed GAO received $300,000 from the energy company owned by climate change denier Robert Murray. The filings revealed a wide range of creditors with deep ties to climate change denial including the Heartland Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and the International Climate Science Coalition. Robert Murray was known for being a major Trump donor, and giving officials a wish list of proposed actions to help the coal industry. See related reporting from The Intercept, Energy and Environment News, and The New York Times.²¹ ²² ²³

Other groups funded by Murray Energy include FreedomWorks, the Cato Institute, the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, and Judicial Watch. As The New York Times noted, Murray continued to fund climate change denial even as his company was going bankrupt.

990 Forms

Key People

Board of Directors

Professionals (also listed at Climate Litigation Watch)²⁷

Chris Horner
Jason Miller

Actions

May 2018

GAO launched Climate Litigation Watch, The Daily Caller reported.²⁸

“We’re not going to get into the science debate and other arguments. We’ll just show the public the documents, so you can decide,” Horner told The Daily Caller. “Let people see what this campaign looks like. There is a constantly shifting narrative. This site lays out the progression — the players and their roles to put all of that into perspective.”²⁹

The Daily Caller noted that Attorneys General Maura Healey of Massachusetts and Eric Schneiderman “will almost certainly be included in the profiles” compiled by Climate Litigation Watch.³⁰

Climate Litigation Watch’s launch occurred while several cities have filed lawsuits against oil companies including Exxon and Chevron. ExxonMobil itself has sued those attempting to investigate and sue the company over global warming, contending that the company is victim to a politically-motivated conspiracy.³¹

Climate Litigation Watch — Project of GAO.
Energy and Environment Legal Institute (E&E Legal) — Also employs Chris Horner, and has sent similar records requests against those investigating ExxonMobil and other oil companies.