Whitehouse Urges Federal Judicial Center Not to Surrender to Climate Denial Campaign by Fossil Fuel Industry against Climate Science Manual

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Courts Subcommittee, sent a letter last week to the Federal Judicial Center (FJC), the research and education agency of the federal judiciary, on its decision to abandon evidence-based climate science under pressure from the fossil fuel industry.

In May, Whitehouse wrote to the judiciary about its removal of the climate science section in the FJC Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence and explained that the section was needed to counter the judiciary's decision to allow judges to attend industry-funded educational "seminars." In the new letter, Whitehouse again urges the FJC to reinstate the climate science section and to resist attacks from the fossil fuel industry.

"The Reference Guide on Climate Science would have given judges trustworthy information from an impartial source on a complex body of science. As with the Reference Manual's chapters on neuroscience, toxicology, and epidemiology, nothing in the Reference Guide on Climate Science compels a particular legal outcome. But when litigants raise questions of climate change attribution, forecasting, and harm-which they do in challenges to federal agency action, insurance disputes, and damage cases-judges need accurate and credible guidance to navigate the science at the heart of those disputes," wrote Whitehouse.

"That guidance is especially important in the context of climate change, where the fossil fuel industry has spent decades hiding and disparaging legitimate, evidence-backed climate science, while promoting climate denial 'science' as simply a competing view that merits equal time," wrote Whitehouse. "I am aware of no court decision suggesting that this field of industry-promoted 'science' is equivalent to the consensus views of virtually the entire scientific community."

The FJC's climate science guidance was based on internationally recognized and trusted sources like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which has been relied on by courts across the country. Nevertheless, the FJC withdrew its climate science guidance in response to attacks on the FJC and its personnel by Republicans and the fossil fuel industry. Whitehouse writes that the judiciary's capitulation to these attacks will only undermine trust in the FJC and embolden the polluters whose goal it is to discredit climate science. He points out that courts at all levels have regularly accepted the basic tenets of climate science.

"Twenty-six state attorneys general and chief legal officers opposed the FJC's decision and have pointed out the many ways the attacks on the Reference Guide were unfounded," Whitehouse continued. "I hope the FJC plans to respond to these criticisms as well. If not, it should explain why critiques from polluter-friendly attorneys general merit swift and decisive action but those from others do not."

Whitehouse continues to spotlight the fossil fuel industry's considerable sway with the judiciary's policymaking and research bodies. For example, the judiciary has permitted judges to attend fossil fuel-funded "seminars" criticizing climate science, not required the hosts of those seminars to disclose their industry funding, and blocked rules that would shine a light on how polluters work together to influence judges.

Whitehouse concluded, "Federal judges, and the parties whose disputes they oversee, deserve support and guidance commensurate with those judges' dedication to deciding cases impartially. The FJC should reassert its commitment to providing that support, without favor to any political party or industry, by issuing the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence as originally intended."

The full letter is available here.