WASHINGTON — A national security watchdog has formally asked Congress to investigate the Environmental Law Institute, citing historical partnerships and program activities involving entities connected to the Chinese government. The request lands weeks after the Environmental Protection Agency severed its own ties with ELI.
Back in the autumn of 2025, EPA Deputy Administrator Fotouhi issued a memo obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News, declaring it “no longer in the Agency’s interest for employees to participate in their official capacity in any conference, program or other event organized by the Environmental Law Institute.” That included ELI’s Climate Judiciary Project and even the organization’s Annual Award Dinner in Washington, D.C., scheduled for October 7, 2025. The watchdog’s report describes ELI’s relationships with what it terms Chinese government-affiliated and CCP-linked entities.
The organization has trained more than 2,000 American judges on environmental law through its Climate Judiciary Project since 2018, according to ELI’s own website. The watchdog’s framing is blunt: political leaders must treat this as a counterintelligence problem, not merely another Washington review. ELI’s decades of China-related work included cultivating partnerships with organizations the report identifies as tied to Beijing.
The EPA’s earlier decision to cut ties cited concerns about alleged attempts to “inappropriately influence the judiciary,” particularly in climate litigation and judicial education programming. The watchdog’s request carries weight because it comes from an agency whose job is to flag exactly these kinds of vulnerabilities.
Whether lawmakers will open a formal investigation, and how deep that probe might go, is the next question. The Climate Judiciary Project’s track record of training more than 2,000 federal and state judges means any potential foreign entanglement touches the very institution Americans trust to interpret the law impartially. For now, the EPA’s ban on official participation in ELI events stands as the most concrete action taken.
Congress has the floor.
