The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) submitted comments today on behalf of its half a million supporters and its network of more than 21,000 scientists to voice strong opposition to the deeply flawed, anti-science content of a report commissioned by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The DOE report, developed in violation of federal law, lies at the center of the Trump administration’s attempt to undo EPA’s Endangerment Finding—the determination, based on mountains of scientific evidence, that climate pollution harms people’s health and well-being.
In addition to submitting comments, UCS has joined the Environmental Defense Fund in challenging this report in court, as it was conceived of and written in secret by a select group of five climate contrarians, the "Climate Working Group" (CWG), hand-picked by DOE Secretary Chris Wright in violation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). In contrast to the sham DOE report, decades of rigorous, peer-reviewed scientific analysis confirm what people across the country are experiencing: burning fossil fuels is unequivocally contributing to dangerous, deadly and costly climate change impacts.
“The CWG report contains demonstrably false statements, relies heavily on cherry-picked data to prop up incorrect conclusions, and actively employs deceptive framing to downplay the severity of climate change harms... It is a staggering affront to the public to see such a flawed product put forward as an official U.S. Government document,” writes UCS in its testimony. “To have it used to justify even worse actions, including as a basis for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to evade its legal obligation to protect the public from the health harms of climate change, is even more egregious.”
UCS concludes by urging the Trump administration to heed the best available science and do what is right and necessary, stating, “The world is teetering on the brink of crossing the 1.5°C mark on a long-term basis, a critical benchmark for science-informed global climate goals. Yet global heat-trapping emissions are far off-track from where they need to be to limit the worst consequences of climate change. As a leading contributor to global emissions, our nation’s actions have profound consequences for the trajectory of the climate crisis. Instead of doing everything it can to worsen the problem, the administration must help ensure our nation is part of the solution, for the sake of people today and for generations to come.”