By Valerie Volcovici
WASHINGTON, Jan 30 (Reuters) - A U.S. federal court on Friday ruled the Department of Energy violated the law when it formed a climate science advisory group, potentially putting its forthcoming final proposal to repeal a key climate regulation at risk.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts issued a judgment that said the creation by the Trump administration of a Climate Working Group, comprised of five climate change skeptics, violated the law that governs
how federal advisory committees work.
KEY CONTEXT
The Environmental Defense Fund and Union of Concerned Scientists sued the Department of Energy last year for convening the working group without public meetings or notice.
Energy Department spokesperson Ben Dietderich said on Friday that the groups have "sought to silence scientists who have merely pointed out – as the Climate Working Group did in its report – that climate science is far from settled,” and said the report still remains in the public record.
The environmental groups had called on the Environmental Protection Agency to rescind its forthcoming final rule to repeal the "endangerment finding," the legal foundation for its climate change-related regulations, arguing that the agency used the DOE working group's report to inform that rulemaking process.
The group's existence was not publicly disclosed when the Department of Energy released the report it drafted on July 29, the same day the EPA formally proposed a rule that would rescind the endangerment finding.
KEY QUOTE
“The federal court’s ruling is absolutely clear – the Trump Administration violated federal law by secretly convening a group tasked with developing a dangerously slanted report to use as the basis for attacking the Endangerment Finding," said Erin Murphy, senior attorney for EDF.
The endangerment finding repeal is under final review at the White House. It was initially supposed to be released late last year.
(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; editing by Edward Tobin)
