Bice: New prosecutor in AG's office paid for by center funded by former NY Mayor Bloomberg

Attorney General Josh Kaul is outsourcing the funding for his fight against climate change in Wisconsin.

Specifically, the second-term Democratic politician is tapping a source tied to a deep-pocketed New York politician to get the job done.

Earlier this year, Kaul hired Karen Heineman as the new special assistant attorney general's position on environmental litigation at an annual salary of $90,000 a year. The position is being paid for by the State Energy and Environmental Impact Center (SEEIC) at New York University Law School.

The center was launched in 2017 with a $6 million grant from the charitable foundation led by climate activist and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The idea was to give attorneys general help in fighting then-President Donald Trump's efforts to roll back renewable energy, environmental protections and climate policies.

Heineman's appointment is initially for one year but can stretch into a second one.

Similar environmental fellows have been appointed in a dozen other states, sparking a strong backlash by conservative politicians who objected to the arrangements. In Minnesota, this issue has led to litigation and partisan legislative debate that stretched over several years.

It looks like the same could happen here.

"Wisconsinites should be alarmed that Michael Bloomberg is bankrolling his own personal government prosecutor to do his bidding," said state Republican Party spokesman Matt Fisher. "Out-of-state billionaires have no right to set up shop in our legal system to achieve their own political ends."

Gillian Drummond, communications director for Kaul, rejected that characterization.

Drummond said the new position is intended to help expand the work of the Department of Justice's Public Protection Unit, which enforces Wisconsin laws that protect consumers and natural resources

"Attorney General Kaul is committed to protecting clean water and combating climate change," Drummond said. "Wisconsin DOJ makes decisions about what matters to address based on its independent judgment of what is in the best interests of Wisconsinites."

The new position isn't just tied up in a debate about its source of funding.

The appointment comes as Wisconsin environmentalists are urging Kaul to be more aggressive in pursuing major oil companies for climate damages.

Over the past year, the U.S. Supreme Court has issued three denials covering eight cases, rejecting fossil fuel companies’ attempts to move the dispute to federal court.

That has shifted the focus to state courts, where nearly three dozen cases filed by state attorneys general, cities, counties and tribal nations against companies including Exxon Mobil, BP and Shell. The lawsuits attempt to show that oil companies’ own research predicted the dangers of climate long ago.

“We’re trying to get more people saying, 'Now’s the time to get going, Kaul,'" Tom Seery, a former Wisconsin state legislator and a leader of Wisconsin for Environmental Justice, told Politico's E&E News last year.

In February, Kaul told WKOW-TV (Channel 27) in Madison that his office has limited resources, something that will likely remain true as long as the Republicans control the Legislature, to hold polluters accountable.

"We have the benefit here of being able to see what unfolds in some other states," Kaul told Channel 27. "And based on that, we will decide what course of action to take."

Drummond emphasized that any decision will not be made by Bloomberg or others elsewhere.

She said the state Justice Department determines what matters to address based on its independent judgment of what is in the best interest of Wisconsinites.

Beyond that, she pointed to the website for the State Energy and Environmental Impact Center, the group paying Heineman's salary. It says: "NYU pays the salaries of the fellows, but the fellows’ sole duty of loyalty is to the attorney general or commissioners in whose office they serve."

But Paul Nolette, director of the Les Aspin Center for Government at Marquette University, said he still saw reason for concern about the arrangement between the state and the Bloomberg-funded center.

"It does raise the question of, Who's really representing the state?" Nolette said. "It's not a taxpayer-funded staff member at the AG' office. Instead, it's a member or someone that's privately funded or part of an advocacy group — that sort of thing."

Nolette said state attorneys general have used private counsel in a number of matters, most notably in their fight with cigarette companies in the late 1990s or, more recently, during the opioid epidemic. But he noted that these were not considered partisan issues.

It's more concerning, he said, when a state prosecutor is relying for help on someone who is being paid by a group this ideologically motivated. He said it is of growing concern that the state's top cops are becoming more and more polarized.

In this case, Nolette, who studies attorneys general, said it's hard to tell what is Bloomberg's interest, NYU's interest and the state's interest.

"What would you think if Republican AGs were hiring a bunch of like conservative activists to run the litigation program of their AG office?" Nolette asked. "There will be a lot of concerns over that."

Staffers for the attorney general being paid for by, say, a foundation underwritten by Koch Industries or Exxon Mobil? Yeah, just imagine that.

Contact Daniel Bice at (414) 313-6684 or dbice@jrn.com. Follow him on X at @DanielBice or on Facebook at fb.me/daniel.bice.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Bice: New state prosecutor paid for by Bloomberg-funded center