House Oversight Committee and State Attorneys General Probe NAS Climate Advocacy Allegations
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine is under investigation by the House Oversight Committee and 22 state attorneys general over documents suggesting a bias toward climate-activist positions.
Thousands of NAS documents reveal an email from Marcia McNutt, then president, asking to use endowment money to fast-track a review that would protect the EPA’s endangerment finding from rescission, labeling opponents as “climate deniers.” The House Oversight Committee has pressed NAS for the withheld files, alleging the academy prepared a biased review to aid climate plaintiffs. Simultaneously, 22 state attorneys general have called for an investigation and possible debarment of NAS’s federal funding, citing a climate-science chapter in a judges’ manual that they say was authored by litigators with vested interests.
The Federal Judiciary Center removed the chapter after pressure, but NAS kept it on its site until it later agreed to one outlet's review, which the attorneys general deem a “sham.” The controversy also touches on a NAS report on attribution science that critics say was influenced by climate-litigation advocates. The outcome could affect NAS’s credibility and future federal support.
