A program that placed paid, climate-focused fellows in Democrat-controlled attorney general offices quietly shut down in late August. 

The closure of the State Energy and Environmental Impact Center, which was backed by billionaire Michael Bloomberg, comes amid congressional and state-level investigations into its funding and operations, the Washington Beacon reported. 

In 2017, Bloomberg provided two seed grants worth $2.8 million each to help found the center. The grants, according to tax filings, came from the Bloomberg Family Foundation, one of the country's most influential charities, that focuses on climate activism.

Since its founding, the center has placed "climate fellows" in attorney general's offices in Washington, D.C., and at least 10 states nationwide.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee launched an investigation last year over concerns that it was influencing the operations of those offices where the "climate fellows" were placed. The committee wrote that Bloomberg was disguising an effort to "skirt legislative bodies and effect partisan policies" as philanthropy. 

"Credit to Chairman Comer for turning up the heat because that kind of scrutiny is exactly why this scheme couldn't survive in the daylight. This wasn't philanthropy, it was a billionaire paying the salaries of government lawyers to drive up costs on working Americans so he could feel good about his climate legacy," Daniel Turner, executive director of Power the Future, which advocates for the energy industry, said in a statement.