In the 27-member block of the European Union, conservative candidates identifying with the right won in Germany and France and are polling ahead in Italy and most other nations, with Poland being the exception where the right has ruled for twelve-years and has fading influence. The primary issues responsible for the populace turning on the hereto- fore left-wing governance are immigration, crime and climate control.

Could we learn something from Europe? Europe has been the testing ground for the climate change movement, charging carbon offset taxes for numerous uses of fossil fuels and the elevated cost of energy. Europeans are saying they are tired of higher costs of living while being overrun by immigrants from around the world and an increase in crime, which is often ignored by authorities.

Here in the US, the open border issue is at the top of American’s concerns, with two-thirds of Americans opposing the Biden Administration’s policies. His recent executive order has been rightly called a feckless, pre-election ploy. It is also no secret that Biden’s open border policy has allowed many criminal elements and belligerents to illegally enter our country causing the FBI to issue advisories of future terrorist threats because of politically subversive operatives being unidentified.

On the environmental front, the office of West Virginia Senator Shelly Moore reports the Biden Administration is taking huge sums of tax-payer money from the Inflation reduction Act (IRA) which was earmarked for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and funneling it to “climate justice” groups under a “national grant program.” Among those receiving $3 billion in grants is the Climate Justice Alliance, which is a network of 90 affiliates who will distribute the tax-payer funds to community-based organizations (CBO’s) which address health and justice issues.

Last November, the Climate Justice Alliance sponsored a “Free Palestine” march in our nation’s capital. To validify their mandate for “climate justice,” banners read “Free Palestine is a Climate Justice Issue,” “Our Government Funds Palestine Genocide” and “Only Socialist Revolution Can Stop World War III.”

According to a Wall Street Journal article, they have called for the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Their website claims $3 billion will flow through their organization from the IRA to grassroots organizations whose time has come to assume governance over the direction of these monies.

It is unclear whether the Biden Administration is at odds with or has not properly vetted these organizations or if it supports their causes for social revolution. Either way, they are receiving our taxpayer funded dollars.

Working with liberal blue-state governments, climate justice organizations are promoting the use of permitting roadblocks, lawsuits, higher taxes and shareholder activism against the oil, gas and coal energy sector. The activist organization, Climate Analytics has alleged CO2 damages done to the climate by 25 major fossil fuel companies between “1985 and 2018 to be about $20 trillion.”

Last month, Vermont passed a law that requires oil companies to pay for damages caused by “extreme weather events” over the last 30 years. Vermont will tally the cost of damages. Companies who have released an estimated 1 billion metric tons of CO2 between 1995 and 2024 will be forced to pay their share of damages to a climate superfund.

Major oil companies are currently defending lawsuits from seven states, Washington, DC and numerous cities. These legal actions are mostly ideologically driven, with the goal of driving the companies out of business. The problem is, adequate alternative energy supply is decades off and if the companies go out of business, then the world goes dark, and transportation becomes still. The more realistic outcome is higher energy prices for all of us.

Climate activists are not just chasing fossil fuel companies, they are also suing food companies. In February, New York Attorney General Letitia James sued JBS USA Food Co., who is a subsidiary of …

… the world’s largest meat processor. Ms. James claims they misled the public about its environmental impact in that “beef production emits the most greenhouse gasses of any major food commodity.”

You may be getting the idea that climate lawyers see the “climate litigation industry” to become quite lucrative in the future, with massive fines and settlements like what happened to the tobacco industry who now make annual payments to the states in perpetuity.

In 2018, the Environmental Law Institute formed the Climate Judiciary Project to educate judges on the impact of greenhouse gasses and climate change. Never mind that there is a growing corps of scientists who disagree with environmental studies and their futuristic models depicting world-wide disasters. The catastrophe predicting segment of environmental science is being driven by the forces of profit, which are being funded by our tax dollars and the tax-paying citizens in Europe and in countries around the globe.

Theirs is a for-profit industry, driven by socialist-minded profit takers who have long tentacles in education, politics and the justice systems. Create a story of catastrophic events, repeat it continually, disregard opposing scientific views, place enforcement in the hands of government, fund it by taxpayers and make the world pay.

It is time for Americans to wise-up to the politician’s scheme and throw the bums out, like Europe is now doing. The climate litigation industry is a growing monster who can only be stopped at the polls by un-electing politicians who are funded by and favor the movement.

One such legislator up for reelection is Senator Martin Heinrich who is a self-proclaimed environmentalist, having served as executive director of the Cottonwood Gulch Foundation, a New Mexico nonprofit dedicated to educating young people on the environment.

Nella Domenici is hoping to defeat Heinrich and regain her father’s old Senate seat. Nella is outspoken on the causes of inflation, crime and border security. She presents herself as an independent thinker who has worked her way to the top of and understands the financial world and the importance of the oil and gas industry to New Mexico. Nella deserves a good look for the job.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Tom Wright is a columnist who lives in Santa Fe. He is an investor in El Rito Media, LLC, which owns the Artesia Daily Press.)