A group of 85 scientists criticized the Energy Department on Tuesday for issuing a climate report that they said “fails to adequately represent the current scientific understanding of climate change” and appeared to violate a federal law requiring balance on scientific advisory panels.
In a public comment to the July DOE report, the 85 scientists wrote that the process for drafting the report may have run afoul of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which requires agencies to minimize bias among panel members and publicly post meeting notices. In his preface to the report, Energy Secretary Chris Wright noted he handpicked the reviewers and gave them a two-month deadline.
“[T]his group appears to have been personally recruited by the Secretary of Energy to advance a particular viewpoint favored by DOE leadership,” the group wrote. The five authors of the DOE climate working group report had previously published some of the ideas in the peer-reviewed literature — but in those forums, many of their conclusions have fallen flat.
“The scientific community has previously examined them and delivered a collective, resounding rejection,” the group of 85 scientists said.
