Correspondence between Dan Emmett, a famous philanthropist, and Ann Carlson — a University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) climate professor — in 2017 showed that the two worked with law firm Sher Edling to garner money for its efforts to sue oil companies & 'pro-oil municipalities' over alleged climate change deception on behalf of state and local governments, according to the emails obtained by watchdog group Government Accountability & Oversight (GAO) and shared with Fox News Digital.
In their emails, Emmett and Carlson discuss how Chuck Savitt, Sher Edling's director of strategic client relationships, had sought Emmett's support and had already received the back of Terry Tamminen in his role as the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation's CEO, a title he held between 2016 and 2019.
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When the correspondence occurred, Carlson, a senior Biden administration official, served as co-director of the UCLA Emmett Institute on Climate Change & the Environment, the advisory board Emmett still chairs.
"Chuck Savitt, heading this new organization behind the lawsuits, has been seeking our support," Emmett wrote to Carlson on July 22, 2017. "Terry Tamminen in his new role with the DiCaprio Foundation, has been a key supporter."
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Emmett also transferred a message Savitt sent him three days earlier on July 19, 2022 asking for his support, according to the records. Savitt mentioned in that email that Sher Edling's first lawsuits were filed with the support of the Collective Action Fund for Accountability, Resilience, and Adaptation; a fund managed at the time by the dark money group Resources Legacy Fund (RLF).
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"Wanted to let you know that we filed the first three lawsuits supported by the Collective Action Fund on Monday," Savitt had told Emmett. "These precedent-setting cases call on 37 of the world's leading fossil fuel companies to take responsibility for the devastating damage sea level rise - caused by their greenhouse gas emissions - is having on coastal communities"
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Savitt also suggested scheduling a meeting between Emmett and Vic Sher, a partner at Sher Edling.
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The email letters were exchanged two months before the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation publicly announced it would contribute $20 million in grants to various climate and conservation causes. The group's announcement, which has since been deleted but remains archived, included a grant to the RLF "to support precedent-setting legal actions to hold major corporations in the fossil fuel industry liable," closely mirroring Savitt's language.
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