EDF, UCS File Lawsuit Against Trump Administration Secret Convening of Climate Skeptics, Use of Their Hidden “Science” Report in Attempt to Overturn Endangerment Finding

(August 12, 2025) Two leading science and environment groups are going to court to challenge the Trump administration’s use of a secretively convened group of climate skeptics to prepare a now widely disparaged report in its attempt to undo the Endangerment Finding. The longstanding Finding provides scientific support for commonsense emission standards to reduce climate pollution and protect people from the more powerful floods, more extreme heat waves, more frequent fires and other deadly hazards made worse by climate change. Millions of Americans are experiencing the clear and present danger of climate change in their lives as well as rising insurance costs and other impacts that are making daily life less safe and less affordable. 

Environmental Defense Fund and Union of Concerned Scientists are challenging the secret formation and hidden activities of the “Climate Working Group,” a group of hand-picked climate skeptics convened months ago by Trump Secretary of Energy Christopher Wright, and the Trump administration’s unlawful use of that Group’s report to pursue the destruction of climate pollution limits for the largest U.S. emitters. The report uses scientific data inaccurately and fundamentally misrepresents many of the findings it cites. The report has been denounced by scientists whose research it contorts. It is at odds with the overwhelming consensus of climate scientists that human activities, principally through emissions of greenhouse gases, have unequivocally caused climate change and that reductions in greenhouse gas emissions would reduce climate harms.

“The Endangerment Finding now under attack by EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is based on all available scientific evidence, reflects extensive transparency and public input, and mirrors the serious reality we experience in our lives that climate pollution puts people in grave danger and has enormous consequences for our health, safety and economy,” said EDF Senior Attorney Erin Murphy. “A few months ago, Secretary Wright secretly hand-picked five long-time climate skeptics to form the ‘Climate Working Group’ and write a report to attempt to undermine widely accepted climate science. The development of this corrupted report, cloaked in secrecy, and Administrator Zeldin’s use of it to undermine pollution protections, puts the American people in harm’s way and violates federal law.” 

“The public deserves transparent climate policy decisions informed by the best available science advice from the nation’s top experts. Yet, the process for this sham report, conducted in secret by five known climate deniers, lacked any sort of rigor and it shows in the shoddy final product rife with errors,” said Dr. Gretchen Goldman, UCS President and CEO. “Decades of rigorous scientific analysis shows burning fossil fuels is unequivocally contributing to deadly heat waves, accelerating sea level rise, worsening wildfires and floods, increased heavy rainfall, and more intense and damaging storms across the country. We should all relentlessly question who stands to gain from efforts to upend this unassailable and peer-reviewed scientific truth.”

In 2009, after clear direction from the Supreme Court, EPA looked at the “ocean of evidence” about climate change through transparent public proceedings evaluating all available scientific evidence. The agency found an overwhelming consensus of the scientific community about climate change’s human causes and devastating effects and issued its Endangerment Finding. 

EDF and UCS’s lawsuit notes that, “Over time, the scientific evidence supporting the Endangerment Finding has only become stronger … Climate change from greenhouse gas emissions has increased dry conditions across the Western United States and helped to fuel wildfires that endanger homes and businesses, threaten basic services like electricity provision, and directly affect the health and lives of people.” (Page 7 and 8) 

In March of this year, shortly after being confirmed as Secretary of Energy, Wright quietly arranged for five hand-picked authors, most of whom have ties to fossil fuel industries, to write a new report that would “cut against the prevailing narrative that climate change is an existential threat.” That report was held secret from the public until after EPA Administrator Zeldin relied on it extensively to support his proposal to overturn the Endangerment Finding, citing it 22 times. However, in the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which was passed in the wake of Nixon-era scandals, Congress directed that federal government advisory committees cannot form or operate in secret, that materials they create must be available to the public, and that they must have balanced membership. 

Multiple climate scientists whose work is cited in the “Climate Working Group” report have denounced it. Ben Santer, a UCS board member, says the report “fundamentally misrepresents” his 2023 paper on climate change. Joellen Russell, an oceanographer at the University of Arizona, observed that the report “is basically designed to suppress science.” (EDF and UCF lawsuit, page 15 and 16).

DOE has decided to allow the public a mere 32 days to comment on the report – but only now that the report is already done and relied on as the basis for destroying U.S. climate pollution limits for the largest emitters.

EDF and UCS filed a lawsuit in the Federal District Court for the District of Massachusetts today challenging the secret establishment of the hand-picked group, its hidden activities and records, and its unlawful use. It asks the court to declare these actions unlawful and enjoin them now and going forward. The suit names Energy Secretary Wright, DOE, EPA and Administrator Zeldin, and the Climate Working Group.