Pennsylvania Republican Congressman Guy Reschenthaler told Fox News Digital that Shapiro recruiting a "Bloomberg-funded, unaccountable prosecutor to specifically target energy producers and job creators in Pennsylvania is despicable."
"Pennsylvania ranks second in natural gas production, third in coal production, and third in electricity production. It is an understatement to say that our commonwealth powers the nation. But Democrats here at home led by Governor Josh Shapiro and Vice President Harris relentlessly attack our energy industry and the 130,000 good-paying, union jobs it supports. Vice President Harris even said, 'There's no question I'm in favor of banning fracking."
Reschenthaler continued, "Our communities depend on making America energy independent again and must reject any attempts by far-left influences to destroy their livelihoods with a Green New Deal agenda."
The Wall Street Journal wrote that "ethical problems" with SAAGs should be obvious."
"This is a fundamental question of ethics and who's running our government," West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, one of a handful of Republican attorneys general who have raised concerns about the Bloomberg-funded program, said in 2020.
"When you actually get to place someone in under a specific agenda and then pay them, and they’re within the office, that starts to call into question whether there are multiple masters within an attorney general office, and that starts to really stink."
Shapiro, who is reported to have recently met with VP Harris as her search for a vice president comes to a close, has been referred to as a "moderate" and "practical" since becoming governor and was referred to in Politico as having "struck a middle" ground on the issue that directly affects hundreds of thousands of energy workers in the commonwealth, but his past rhetoric could come back to haunt him.
Bloomberg has made his position on climate change clear in many statements over the years, including calling for the elimination of all coal-fired power plants and phasing out gas-powered plants.
According to Washington-based attorney Chris Horner, who worked with Energy Policy Advocates on public records requests into the State Impact Center's activities, the group's self-declared "nonpartisan" label is a smokescreen allowing it to pursue ideologically motivated, "progressive" goals with SAAGs he labeled "mercenaries."
"Nonpartisan, in that you need just promise to use the mercenaries to advance 'progressive' climate legal positions," he said. "So, partisan? Perish the thought. It's merely ideological."
Presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris has previously called to ban fracking, a main driver of energy and jobs in Pennsylvania, but she has walked that back in recent weeks after becoming the presumptive nominee.
Dan Weaver, president and executive director of the Pennsylania Independent Oil & Gas Association told Fox News Digital that his organization "believes elected officials who have expressed past concerns with oil and natural gas development, even to the extent of banning all hydraulic fracturing in the U.S., gain an entirely new perspective on the importance of these energy sources to our nation when they are presented with facts from objective sources rather than emotional appeals on the campaign trail."
"The facts are simple and compelling: natural gas produces more than one-third of our nation’s electricity, and there is no viable or economical option to replace that amount of energy that consumers demand, as well as to meet the forecasted significant increase in demand from data centers and economic growth," he continued.