Warning: How Lawyers Are Blogging Climate Change

One of the biggest, most prestigious and most powerful law firms in the world has a global warming blog. It's called climateintel.com and it's brought to you by the law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer and Feld LLP.

It is yet another indication of the primacy of carbon as a paramount business issue. But before getting too excited about reading the blog, please be forewarned by a big red flag:

The blog appears to be essentially a marketing vehicle for the firm's global climate change practice, launched last November, and the interests of the industry clients it represents.

The blog came to our attention because a marketing coordinator at Akin Gump sent us an e-mail, asking if we would include climateintel on our blog roll. It's a simple request, right? Not in the hands of a law firm.

Good evening,

I am writing to discuss potentially establishing a relationship between Solve Climate and ClimateIntel, a blog produced by the climate change practice of the international law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP.

Drawing on the firm's well-known synergies in the areas of environmental, policy and energy law, ClimateIntel provides a daily analysis of domestic and international developments that drive investment in climate change technologies, industrial sectors and markets. We aim to provide real-time information in areas where policy directly intersects with business practice.

Our most recent posts include a guest article by Summit Blue, a climate change consulting firm, Bank of America’s announcement that climate change issues are impacting their underwriting decisions when evaluating denying California's waiver application. Additionally, each week we provide coverage on relevant hearings taking place on The Hill: http//climateintel.com/2008/02/25/this-week-on-the-hill-5/.

We are initiating our blogroll and are approaching you due to the high quality content and analysis contained in Solve Climate. (Aw shucks, you probably say that to all the bloggers!) Cross-linking would be of mutual benefit to our organizations and the climate change blogging and business community at large. We seek to broaden our readers' knowledge of climate change by linking to Solve Climate while your audience would have the opportunity to gain an enhanced understanding from a policy perspective offered in ClimateIntel.

For your reference and review, ClimateIntel can be accessed online via http//climateintel.com/. Please let me know if you’d be interested in cross-linking and I would be happy to facilitate the necessary details.

Whoa! You're freakin' me out! Lighten up! This is the blogosphere. And in a fashion you'd expect from any self-respecting blogger, I decided to find out: what's Akin Gump up to?

First, I found a press release on their web site dated November 27, 2007.

(Washington, D.C.) – Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP has formed a climate change practice to help clients control the risks and take advantage of the opportunities presented by the shift from a carbon-constrained economy, the firm announced today.

I think they meant to say "presented by the shift TO a carbon-constrained economy." Be that as it may, there's more:

The multidisciplinary practice is led in Washington by Ken Mehlman, former chairman of the Republican National Committee and a partner in the firm’s policy practice, and Paul Gutermann, head of Akin Gump’s environment practice.

Ken Mehlman? Leading the climate change practice?

Honestly, what does climateintel and Akin Gump want with Solve Climate? This blog is a fly speck awfully far away from the Republican orbit.

Akin Gump's got offices in Austin, Beijing, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Moscow, New York, Philadelphia, San Antonio, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Taipei, and Washington, D.C.

We could help them by putting their link on our blog roll? We're flattered.

In their energy area, Akin Gump represents clients in nuclear energy, natural gas and crude oil, and the electric industry. They also have the right people on their payroll. For example:

Among the various professionals involved in our nuclear-related representations is a former deputy chief counsel of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Additionally, the firm continues to enjoy very close personal and professional relationships at all levels of the NRC.

I can see why I'd want Akin Gump's lawyers and lobbyists on my side. That's why, for example, the Environmental Defense Fund has retained Akin Gump to help lobby for passage of the Lieberman-Warner climate bill this year. This from Greenwire:

Meantime, Environmental Defense, the New York-based advocacy group, is coordinating its lobbying efforts with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, a Washington lobbying powerhouse.

We're playing the game the old fashioned way," explained Steve Cochran, Environmental Defense's legislative strategist. "It's new for us in the environmental community, but it's kind of fun," he said, noting that environmental groups have traditionally done their own lobbying.

The "old fashioned way" in this case will have two of Akin Gump's veteran lobbyists, Ken Mehlman, former chairman of the Republican National Committee, and Victor Fazio, a former Democratic congressman from California, walking the halls of Congress. Their first mission is to find the right political formula to attract the 60 votes necessary to overcome a likely filibuster threat in the Senate.

Akin Gump's efforts will be backed up by a multi-year advertising campaign focusing on the environmental risks of climate change. According to Cochran, the overall package will be paid for by Julian Robertson, a former New York hedge fund tycoon and now a philanthropist. He is a board member of Environmental Defense.

The reason he's hired lobbyists is that they know Washington better than he does," said Fraser Seitel, a spokesman for Robertson. He emphasized that the expenses for the lobbying effort will come from Robertson's own pocket and not from his charitable foundation. "There will be no tax deductions taken for this," he noted.

"For years and years, lobbying on bills involving this issue was pretty straightforward, you kind of knew where everybody was," Cochran explained. "This is different now."

I'll say. You never know what can happen in Washington, Mayflower Hotel aside. And it looks like the full-court press to pass Lieberman-Warner this year has started. It's going to hit the Senate floor in June under the care of Senator Barbara Boxer.

Right now, most environmental are groups are standing next to Senator Boxer, who has threatened to pull the measure from the floor if any amendments get added that weaken the legislation.

Fifteen environmental groups joined Boxer at yesterday's press conference, including top officials from the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the League of Conservation Voters, the World Wildlife Fund and Environmental Defense.

"There are rumors circulating that environmental groups are divided," Boxer said. "That is not true. Environmental organizations are united.They want a necessary, strong bill. We are united and we're going to work to that goal."

There are two notable exceptions: Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, who think the bill is too weak already.

"While we have great respect for Senator Boxer and appreciate the leadership she is showing on global warming, it is premature to suggest that there is unity behind 'America's Climate Security Act' as introduced by Senators Lieberman and Warner," said John Passacantando, executive director of Greenpeace USA. "The legislation is more a reflection of the pitfalls of political compromise than a real solution to safeguard the planet."

Friends of the Earth Action President Brent Blackwelder said hisgroup's opposition to the legislation "is not just strategic, it is also substantive."

The Lieberman-Warner plan does not push for sharp enough emission cuts and gives away too many free cap-and-trade emission credits to industry, he said.

Akin Gump no doubt has many irons in the fire. We know they're working with EDF, but who else? And how does that influence the content of climateintel, the blog of their global climate change practice?

Sure, the marketer claims that the blog will provide "real-time information in areas where policy directly intersects with business practice."

I took a look. This is one instance where I'll let you call me a "skeptic."

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