West Virginia attorney general subpoenas environmental groups

West Virginia’s attorney general has sent investigative subpoenas to environmental advocacy organizations — something the groups are describing as a retaliatory attack on their First Amendment rights.

West Virginia Rivers Coalition and 350.org filed a lawsuit this week saying they and at least four other organizations received subpoenas from the office of state Attorney General JB McCuskey (R).

The demands seek information about the organizations’ public statements about climate change and energy, requests for donations, ties to renewable energy companies and more.

They asked a federal court in West Virginia to halt enforcement of the subpoenas, saying they violate the organizations’ rights to free speech and calling them “baseless and retaliatory.”

“We’ve done nothing wrong and we don’t sell anything, yet these subpoenas were issued under a law meant to protect consumers from unfair business practices. They serve no legitimate investigative purpose. They read as an attempt to pressure and intimidate people working for the public good, and we’re asking the court to stop them,” said 350.org’s executive director Anne Jellema in a written statement.

Meanwhile, at least one other group, the Sierra Club, said it received a subpoena that was later withdrawn — after it informed the attorney general’s office of its intent to sue over it.

“While we are glad to see the West Virginia attorney general withdraw his sweeping subpoena after we informed him of our plans to file a federal lawsuit, his threats to silence and intimidate us and other groups remain,” said Loren Blackford, executive director of the Sierra Club.

Blackford said the probe was unprecedented.

“We’ve seen nothing like this,” she said.

The Hill has reached out to McCuskey’s office for comment.

In the past, congressional Republicans have subpoenaed and otherwise sought to investigate environmental groups . Earlier this year, Florida’s attorney general also subpoenaed environmental law-related organizations.