Attorney General Austin Knudsen (R-Montana) is leading the coalition that is asking the National Academies to remove a "biased climate science chapter" from their reference manual.
In a letter sent last week to President Marcia McNutt and President-elect Neil Shubin, Knudsen outlines his concerns regarding the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence, Fourth Edition.
Produced with taxpayer dollars, the manual is intended to impartially assist judges on complex scientific cases. But Knudsen says the latest version risks undermining judicial neutrality and integrity.
"This is very concerning," he tells American Family News (AFN). "They've inserted this chapter on climate science as if climate science is settled, that man-made global climate change is in fact 'settled science' – quote, unquote – and that's just not the case."
21 attorneys general – those from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, and Wyoming – have also joined the effort.
"What's concerning to me is when you look at who compiled this chapter… it's predominately three individuals, and these three individuals are actively involved in litigation, civil cases right now where they have openly shown their bias," Knudsen notes. "They have conflicts of interest here."
"These are climate activists," he continues. "There is no such thing as settled science. Science is always looking for new data and new viewpoints and new information, and this is just more of a science cult, frankly."
Jason Isaac of the American Energy Institute applauds the effort.
"The entire thing needs to be removed," Isaac told AFN. "This is all done using taxpayer dollars."
In August, Attorney General Knudsen sent a similar letter urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to cancel taxpayer-funded grants to the Environmental Law Institute's Climate Judiciary Project, which had been funding climate advocacy trainings for nearly 2,000 judges across the country.
Following the letter and review, the EPA terminated all related grants, ensuring no current funding for the environmental group.
