Leaked Calls Reveal ALEC’s Secret Plan to Thwart Biden on Climate Mother Jones – Mother Jones

In a similar vein, 21 Republican-controlled states, led by Texas and Montana, havesued the Biden administrationover its decision to revoke a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, calling it an unconstitutional overuse of executive power that would diminish the states economies and tax revenue. Both lawsuits are pending in federal courts. Separately, in response to Bidens alleged hostility to the energy industry, Texas Governor Greg Abbottissued an executive order in January directing state agencies to use all lawful powers to challenge federal policies that disadvantage oil and gas operators. (Texas state agencies with the ability to loosen environmental regulations on the oil and gas industry largely do not appear to have changed policies in response to the order.)

Ultimately, many of these actions may amount to little more than grandstanding, and its difficult to discern whether or not a broad, deliberate strategy is at work. But behind the scenes, call records obtained by Grist show that the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, has formed a new working group to build upon these efforts.

On a one-hour call with ALEC members in late February, former Utah state representative Ken Ivory claimed that each directive in the presidents Januaryexecutive order on climate actionunduly entrenched federal power and stripped authority from the states. He surfaced fears that Biden will declare a national climate emergency that unlocks more than 130 unilateral executive actions. (Its unclear how Ivory, who did not respond to Grists request for comment, arrived at that figure.) Ivory also faulted the Democratic administration for promoting climate-focused policies within federal agencies through executive orders, rather than routing all proposals through Congress.

Were seeing something that theyre identifying as a new age in climate federalism, Ivory said.

The call was the first of two that have taken place so far as part of ALECs new Functional Federalism Working Group, which exists separately from a longstanding ALECtask force on federalism and international relations. The new group hasnt been publicized on the ALEC website beyondtwo brief mentionsinblog postspenned by Ivory. Its name suggests that the group is meant to redress what Ivory described as an imbalance of power between Bidens presidency and state governments, a majority of which are dominated by conservatives.

Whats the reasoning or the exact strategy for them in creating this secretive working group, we still dont know, said David Armiak, a research director with the Center for Media and Democracy, a nonprofit government watchdog group that tracks ALECs initiatives and provided Grist with a verbatim record of the two recent calls. Fossil fuel and pharmaceutical companies do still play leadership roles and very active roles in sponsor meetings, and theyre worried about some of these executive actions.

A spokesperson for ALEC did not respond to Grists requests for comment.

ALEC is a membership organization for state lawmakers and industry representatives that is best known for drafting model bills that are then picked up by state legislatures. Its bills have been linked to a number of state lawsdiscouraging clean energyandcriminalizing protests against pipeline projects. ALECs efforts to block climate progress, combined with itsalliance with right-wing groupsthat explicitly promote climate change denial, has led major corporations such as ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Microsoft, and Google tocut ties with the group.

While its still too early to tell exactly what shape opposition to the Biden administrations climate proposals will take, the ALEC calls provide a few indications. On the calls, Ivory floated three potential ways for state lawmakers to present a united front against the Biden agenda: nullification, or passing state legislation to invalidate federal actions that states believe are unconstitutional; the initiation of a constitutional convention that would pass amendments giving states more power; and the passage of non-binding resolutions reaffirming the U.S. Constitutions Tenth Amendment, which declares that powers not explicitly granted to the federal government belong to the states, in state legislatures.

The states have to be able to speak with one voice, Ivory said. As John Adams said, The clocks all have to strike at one.

Political scientists who spoke to Grist doubted the likelihood of a constitutional convention or nullification actions, but they cautioned against underestimating the effects of passing resolutions at the state level and discussing ways to wrest power from the federal government.

Theyre providing the intellectual scaffolding for this elite movement, said Jacob Grumbach, a University of Washington political science professor who has studied ALEC closely. The moves are symbolic and help unify disparate camps within the conservative movementfrom anti-abortion groups to pro-gun groups and fossil fuel interestsby highlighting the shared benefits of more power at the state level, he said.

Grumbach noted that, during the Trump years, ALEC was less involved in the issues animating national politics than it had been during previous administrations, and it further cemented its position as a bill mill for state legislatures. ALECs federalism initiatives are already cropping up in state legislatures. Resolutions reaffirming the Tenth Amendment and ostensibly nullifying Bidens executive orders have been introduced in at least four statesIdaho,Texas,South Carolina, andMontanathis year, but they have not yet passed. The bills are based on a theory that states have the right to veto federal policies or declare them null and void within their borders if they believe they are unconstitutional. The theory has its roots in the antebellum efforts of some states to preserve slavery and has not been upheld in federal court.

Leah Stokes, a political science professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, said that it was predictable that ALECs new federalism working group would be laser-focused on climate policy. (Editors note: Stokes was selected as aGrist 50 Fixerin 2020.) With theexodus of technology companiesfrom ALEC, many of the organizations remaining members are oil and gas interests.

Its not surprising to see the fossil fuel industry try to push back and weaken progress because they dont want us to get off fossil fuels, she said. They want to keep making profit and imperil the climate stability and the health of people all across the United States. Thats how they make money.

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Leaked Calls Reveal ALEC's Secret Plan to Thwart Biden on Climate Mother Jones - Mother Jones