Court Orders Trump Administration to Release Records of Secret Group That Wrote Report Attacking Climate Science

(December 8, 2025) A federal court ruled in a hearing today that the Trump administration must release records related to the Climate Working Group (CWG) - the secretly created group that wrote a widely-discredited report now at the center of administration attacks on U.S. efforts to address climate change and the damage it is doing across the country.

"Americans can see that climate change is real and is harming them - through everything from disastrous weather to soaring insurance bills. The Trump administration wants to eliminate protections against climate change, and it created the so-called Climate Working Group in secret, and then developed a deeply flawed report behind closed doors in unlawful pursuit of that dangerous goal," said EDF Senior Attorney Erin Murphy. "Today's court order makes clear that the public has a right to know what the government and the group said in the development of its discredited and inaccurate report, and that the Trump administration must release records as required by law."

"The Trump administration has essentially acknowledged that they didn't follow the law when commissioning a secret committee process to draft their sham report aimed at undermining the Endangerment Finding," said UCS President and CEO Dr. Gretchen Goldman. "As the judge has ruled today, the government must now expeditiously share all relevant documents that the public has a right to see. The Trump administration must rectify its misdeeds because democracy cannot thrive if governments do not operate transparently. People across the country will face substantial harms if policymakers resort to biased, hidden processes instead of heeding the best available science in their decision making."

Earlier this year, Trump Secretary of Energy Christopher Wright secretly arranged for five hand-picked climate action opponents to form the CWG and tasked them with writing a report challenging the overwhelming scientific consensus that climate change is caused by greenhouse gas pollution and harms people's health and well-being. The resulting report was held secret from the public until July, when it was unveiled as prominent part of Trump EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin's proposal to eliminate the Endangerment Finding - the cornerstone of U.S. efforts to protect people from climate pollution and the worsening droughts, flooding, wildfires, and other unnatural disasters that it causes. Zeldin's proposal to overturn the Endangerment Finding relies extensively on the CWG's report, citing it 22 times.

The CWG's report was denounced by scientists whose research it cites for using scientific data inaccurately and fundamentally misrepresenting many of their findings. More than 85 scientists issued a scathing rebuttal to the report. Scientists at EDF and UCS experts filed comments with the Department of Energy further detailing the numerous, severe, and pervasive problems with the CWG report, and a recent report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine affirmed that the evidence that human-caused pollution harms people's health and well-being is beyond scientific dispute and has only strengthened since EPA's 2009 Endangerment Finding.

In August, Environmental Defense Fund and the Union of Concerned Scientists filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, arguing that the Trump administration's creation of the CWG and use of its report violate the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). Congress passed FACA in the wake of the Nixon-era scandals; the law states clearly 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.

EDF and UCS's lawsuit also noted 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 September, the Trump administration said it had disbanded the CWG after its July report - but it is still using that report, and the group's members have publicly stated that they are continuing to work.

Last week, the Trump administration filed a brief with the court acknowledging that FACA applies to the CWG:

"This Court granted partial summary judgment to Plaintiffs and held that the [CWG] was an advisory committee subject to FACA … Defendants acknowledge this Court's Order and reserve all rights of appeal, but do not otherwise contest the merits of Plaintiffs' FACA claims against DOE." (page 2)

In a hearing today, the court recognized that concession and ruled that the Trump administration must release the CWG's records by December 22^nd. The court directed the government to release advisory committee records and provide an index identifying any withheld records (known as a Vaughn Index).The court also directed the parties to meet and propose a schedule to address the remaining issues in the case.

You can read the Trump administration's filing here and EDF and UCS's response here.

You can read today's court ruling here.