Watching Government: Climate change and free speech

Environmental activists who allege ExxonMobil Corp. tried to suppress climate research for decades came under pressure themselves from Republicans on the US House Science, Space, and Technology Committee.

Twenty state attorneys general-the so-called Green 20-announced on Mar. 29 "that they were cooperating on an unprecedented effort against those who have questioned the causes, magnitude, or best ways to address climate change," Chairman LaMar Smith (Tex.) and 12 other committee Republicans said in May 18 letters to officials at the Union of Concerned Scientists, 350.org, Greenpeace, and five other groups.

"The committee is concerned that these efforts to silence speech are based not on sound science, but rather on a long-term strategy developed by political activist organizations," the federal lawmakers said.

They said efforts to instigate an investigation such as the one announced at the end of March date back at least to October 2012 when the Climate Accountability Institute and UCS convened a workshop to develop "a strategy to fight industry in the courts."

A necessary component was to bring "internal industry documents to light," the letters said. Lawyers at the workshop said that lawsuits were not the only way to secure these documents, but state attorneys general also could subpoena them, and "even grand juries convened by a district attorney could result in significant document discovery."

The sequence of events from then to the Green 20's Mar. 29 announcement "raises serious questions about the impartiality and independence of the investigations," the committee Republicans said. "Their actions appear to be the result of a long-standing, coordinated effort by activist groups such as UCS to target industrial, nonprofit, and scientific organizations and individuals who question the activist groups' conclusions."

'I'm not surprised'

Officials in the organizations responded quickly. "We weren't expecting them to come after us quite like this, but I'm not surprised they're fighting back," 350.org Executive Director May Boeve said. "The climate movement has been hitting fossil fuel companies like Exxon hard-from stopping pipelines to blockading oil trains to explicitly calling out their lies. Unleashing their allies in Congress is a counter-attack of the most desperate kind."

Smith's letter made no claim that UCS violated any law or regulation, but seeks government oversight of the group's right to petition the government to address climate change, the group's Pres. Ken Kimmel said on June 1.

"This kind of open-ended investigation is an abuse of power, and we are standing up to it to avoid setting a precedent that could have a chilling effect on scientists, or anyone else, exercising their right to speak out about any vital issue," Kimmel said.