Trump administration escalates push to discredit mainstream climate science

The Trump administration is planning a public campaign to undermine federal climate science, including holding debates and making revisions to government reports, based on a controversial new U.S. Energy Department document.

Scott Waldman reports for E&E News.

In short:

• A new Department of Energy report, written by five scientists including former BP chief scientist Steven Koonin, challenges the consensus that fossil fuels are driving global warming and argues that climate change may be less economically damaging than widely believed.
• The administration plans to expand this effort with public debates, a point-by-point rebuttal of the National Climate Assessment, and an attempt to include more contrarian voices in federal climate reporting.
• Many climate scientists argue the DOE report misrepresents their work and recycles discredited claims; they see the campaign as a political maneuver to weaken climate regulations and justify overturning the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's endangerment finding.

Key quote:

“The notion that they have not been part of the community and have not had the opportunity to convince others of the correctness of their arguments is just plain wrong. The bottom line is, they haven’t succeeded in defending the arguments that they now present in the DOE report.”

— Ben Santer, a climate scientist who worked at DOE for 30 years before retiring in 2021

Why this matters:

Efforts to sow doubt about climate science can shape public understanding and policy for years, especially when driven by government institutions. The strategy of amplifying uncertainty rather than engaging with established scientific findings has long been used to delay regulatory action. Undermining the National Climate Assessment, which informs federal planning on everything from infrastructure to disaster response, risks weakening the nation’s ability to prepare for and mitigate the effects of a warming planet. Discrediting peer-reviewed science could sideline the evidence needed to make informed decisions in the face of mounting environmental and health risks.

Read more: Environmental groups sue Trump administration over secretive climate science report