Attorney General Knudsen urges National Academies to remove biased climate chapter from judicial manual

HELENA – Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen led a coalition of 21 attorneys general urging the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to remove the biased climate science chapter from their reference manual used by judges across the country and could be compromising judicial integrity in cases.

In a letter sent today to the President of the National Academy of Sciences Marcia McNutt and the President-elect Neil Shubin, Attorney General Knudsen outlined his concerns regarding the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence, Fourth Edition, produced with taxpayer dollars. While the manual is intended to impartially assist judges on complex scientific cases, the latest version risks the undermining the judicial neutrality.

“When biased theories are presented to judges as fact and neutral reference tools, it compromises judicial impartiality and can tip the scale on pending litigation,” Attorney General Knudsen said. “It is unacceptable that the National Academies continue to allow the climate science chapter to remain in circulation, especially when taxpayer dollars are used to support their work. I expect a clear explanation for why it has not been withdrawn and how they plan to prevent biased ideologies in future editions.”

The manual relies on three climate activists who have recently been involved in political and climate change advocacy and litigation, including providing expert testimony in active lawsuits, which violates the courts’ fundamental commitment to remain impartial.

“This partisanship is especially troubling since taxpayer money provided by the federal government is the largest source—more than $200 million—of the National Academies’ budget. Taxpayer money should not be used for political causes, particularly by an entity that Congress created to provide independent and objective scientific reports,” the attorneys general wrote.

Of note, the Federal Judicial Center worked with the National Academies to produce the manual. Earlier this month, Attorney General Knudsen joined a coalition of attorneys general requesting the Federal Judicial Center to withdraw the chapter from the latest edition of the manual. Subsequently, the Center’s director removed the chapter from all available versions of the manual. Still, the National Academies have not removed the biased climate material in their manual.

Attorney General Knudsen is asking the National Academy President and President-Elect to answer the following questions by March 2:

1. Will the National Academies immediately withdraw the Fourth Edition’s climate science chapter from all versions of the Fourth Edition produced by the National Academies, including hard copies and online?
2. Why did the National Academies not withdraw the Fourth Edition’s climate science chapter at the same time as the Federal Judicial Center?
3. Why did the National Academies include a chapter on climate science that is not based on balanced or sound science?
4. Have any hard copies of the Fourth Edition containing the climate science chapter already been distributed? If so, please provide an accounting of the number of copies distributed, the identities of all recipients, and the National Academies’ plan to replace the erroneous versions with hard copies that do not contain the climate science chapter.
5. What procedures will the National Academies establish to prevent similar advocacy-based chapters in future editions?

Attorneys general 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 also joined the letter.

In August, Attorney General Knudsen sent a 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.