Ranking Member Lofgren Requests Information from Member of Now-Dissolved Trump Climate Working Group
(Washington, DC) – Yesterday, Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) sent a letter to Dr. Judith Curry, a former member of the now-disbanded Department of Energy (DOE) Climate Working Group (CWG), expressing concern over allegations raised by Dr. Curry in an interview with E&E News. The CWG recently released a report designed to back up the Trump Administration’s effort to repeal the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Endangerment Finding. In the interview with E&E, Dr. Curry reveals that DOE may have taken shortcuts in establishing the CWG, calling into question its legality.
“The CWG’s report underpins one of the Trump Administration’s most far-reaching environmental goals: the repeal of the EPA’s Endangerment Finding,” said Ranking Member Lofgren in the letter. “We can all agree that this would be extremely consequential. In the eyes of Science Committee Democrats – as well as climate scientists, environmental researchers, medical doctors, and peer agencies the world over – this repeal would be an abandonment of public health in favor of the preferred policy outcomes of industries that stand to benefit massively from the ability to pollute our air unfettered by greenhouse gas regulations. In the eyes of allies of the Trump Administration and of individuals like yourself who disagree with the scientific consensus on climate change, this repeal would finally unburden the United States from the shackles of climate alarmism and unleash a prosperous future that runs on fossil fuels. Regardless of anyone’s perspective on the substance of this matter, we should all care deeply that such a consequential decision is made transparently and legally, dotting all the I’s and crossing all the T’s.”
The Ranking Member continued, “This Committee has the responsibility to ensure that science-based decision-making in the executive branch complies with the laws enacted by Congress. In order to fulfill the Committee’s oversight obligations, I request that you participate in a formal interview with Committee staff. Please be prepared to address the following matters:
1. The process by which you were selected for and onboarded to the CWG;
2. The responsibilities of the CWG, as expressed to CWG members by DOE Secretary Chris Wright;
3. The work of the CWG from the initiation of the group through the dissolution of the group;
4. The September 3rd, 2025, dissolution of the CWG;
5. The “paperwork errors” you referenced in your interview for the aforementioned E&E News article; and
6. The work you intend to conduct with your former CWG co-members, as you referenced in the aforementioned E&E News article.”
Read the letter here.
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