Climate and Energy Policy

Nineteen Republican state attorneys general, led by Montana AG Austin Knudsen, have sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and DOJ National Security Division chief John Eisenberg demanding a Foreign Agents Registration Act investigation into more than 150 U.S.-based climate and energy nonprofits. The AGs cite a conservative watchdog report finding that five foreign climate foundations — the Oak Foundation, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, Quadrature Climate Foundation, KR Foundation and Laudes Foundation — funneled nearly $2 billion over the past decade into U.S. organizations engaged in litigation, lobbying, research and protests aimed at shaping American energy policy. They argue these foreign-based entities qualify as "foreign principals" under FARA and that there is "substantial evidence" many U.S. recipients are effectively acting as unregistered foreign agents to "undermine American energy independence." The letter singles out CIFF as having "documented ties" to the Chinese Communist Party and notes a separate December 2025 AG request for a narrower FARA probe tied to CIFF-related groups. DOJ has not yet commented, and none of the named foreign foundations responded to Fox’s inquiries, but the request fits a broader Trump-era push — mirrored in House and Ways & Means probes of foreign money into advocacy nonprofits — to recast parts of the U.S. climate movement as potentially foreign‑influenced political operations.