Energy Secretary Chris Wright appeared before private audiences of federal judges at three seminars hosted by the Law and Economics Center (LEC) at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia School of Law, according to a letter from Sher Edling attorney William Pittard to the House judiciary committee. Pittard cited publicly available agendas showing Wright spoke at LEC seminars in June 2021 and June 2024 while he was founder and chief executive of Liberty Energy, an onshore oilfield services company.
The LEC has long faced criticism for its expense-paid judicial seminars and for accepting significant funding from fossil fuel firms, including companies that are defendants in climate deception lawsuits. The center has received financial support from ExxonMobil and the Charles Koch Foundation, both defendants in such litigation. A letter from the LEC to the Charles Koch Foundation, as reported by ProPublica, stated that the program gives judges “a healthy skepticism of the invocations of ‘science’ that lurk in the background of lawsuits they are hearing.”
Pittard’s letter, first covered by E&E News, was sent in response to a House judiciary committee investigation into the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) and its Climate Judiciary Project. The committee, led by Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio and subcommittee chair Darrell Issa of California, claims that ELI has engaged in “improper attempts … to influence federal judges.” ELI’s Climate Judiciary Project holds seminars for judges and lawyers about climate science, which the institute says provide “evidence-based judicial education” on how climate issues arise in the law.
Pittard argued that the investigation is a distraction from fossil fuel-backed influence efforts. “There is nothing extraordinary, and certainly nothing nefarious, about Sher Edling’s touchpoints with ELI, which are minimal,” he wrote. He said Sher Edling’s connection to ELI “pales in relation” to ELI’s links with companies targeted by climate litigation, noting that ELI has received funding from BP, Chevron, and Koch Industries and that its board has included executives from BP and Shell.
Other speakers with financial ties to the fossil fuel industry have appeared at recent LEC seminars, Pittard noted. Weeks ago, Phil Goldberg, special counsel to an initiative of a trade group that opposes climate accountability lawsuits and whose board includes senior executives of five defendant companies, spoke at an LEC symposium. Goldberg is also a managing partner at Shook, Hardy & Bacon, which represents Murphy Oil in a climate suit.
In a November 2024 blog post, rightwing economist David Henderson, who co-presented at the same LEC program as Wright, recounted that Wright expressed “skepticism about how bad global warming will be” during his talk.
Kert Davies, director of special investigations at the Center for Climate Integrity, said the influence campaign could affect judges’ handling of the growing wave of climate deception litigation. “The goal is to create an atmosphere around climate litigation that makes the issue seem politicized, or like something that judges should rule on cautiously,” Davies said. “If judges are led to believe that the cases are somehow too political, or that climate science is sketchy … they’re less likely to rule against defendants in climate lawsuits.”
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., has raised similar concerns about the LEC. “No surprise: Fossil fuel prefers that judges rely on industry-funded ‘education’ seminars teaching a false version of climate science,” Whitehouse said in a statement.
Records reviewed by the Guardian show the LEC also sought support in 2023 from the charitable foundation of hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer. Singer’s hedge fund, Elliott Management, holds stakes in Suncor Energy, acquired Citgo in 2025, and owns more than 5% of BP — all three defendants in climate litigation. A letter from the LEC to the foundation indicated that the foundation had previously backed the program.
The House judiciary committee has also subpoenaed an attorney representing Multnomah County in its 2023 climate lawsuit against major oil companies, as part of the ELI investigation.
The LEC, the Department of Energy, and Chris Wright did not respond to requests for comment.