A nonprofit government watchdog group filed a suit Monday against the Department of Commerce for communications between two federal scientists who influenced the Obama administration’s climate change policy.
Judicial Watch filed a Feb. 6, 2017, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking communications between National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientist Thomas Karl and White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director John Holdren over the course of Barack Obama’s presidency.
The watchdog filed the lawsuit after NOAA – a Department of Commerce component – ignored the Feb. 6 request.
“This new lawsuit could result in the release of emails that will help Americans understand how Obama administration officials may have mishandled scientific data to advance the political agenda of global warming alarmism,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement.”
Karl authored a paper that heavily influenced the Paris Climate Agreement and was chief of the NOAA’s office that produces climate data.
Karl breached NOAA’s scientific integrity rules by publishing “the sensational but flawed report,” according to a whistleblower, The Daily Mail previously reported. The paper reportedly heavily influenced the Paris Agreement.
The paper disputed the slowdown in global warming since 1998, but the whistleblower, former NOAA top scientist Dr. John Bates, provided evidence that Karl’s report was based on misleading data, The Daily Mail reported.
Judicial Watch is also suing for NOAA officials’ communications regarding how climate change data used in climate models was collected and interpreted.
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