{"id":395049,"date":"2025-08-14T14:26:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T13:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=395049"},"modified":"2026-01-04T19:29:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T18:29:12","slug":"the-consensus-strikes-back-climate-empire-launches-legal-assault-on-epa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=395049","title":{"rendered":"The Consensus Strikes Back: Climate Empire Launches Legal Assault on EPA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Charles Rotter<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Group<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Breaking: Climate Consensus Crusaders Sue to Save the Endangerment Finding From\u2026 Skeptics With Opinions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yesterday, the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) stormed into federal court, clutching their pearls and a 40-page complaint, <\/a>to demand that the EPA and Department of Energy be stopped from\u2014brace yourself\u2014listening to people who don\u2019t think \u201cclimate change\u201d is the meteorological equivalent of Armageddon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, reads like a mashup of Chicken Little\u2019s autobiography and a high-school debate club\u2019s \u201cAppeal to Consensus\u201d handbook. According to the plaintiffs, the great crime here is that Secretary of Energy Christopher Wright dared to assemble five well-known climate skeptics\u2014John Christy, Judith Curry, Steven Koonin, Ross McKitrick, and Roy Spencer\u2014to review the evidence and produce a report questioning the EPA\u2019s 2009 \u201cEndangerment Finding\u201d. That\u2019s the sacred ruling declaring greenhouse gases an official public health menace, without which the climate policy priesthood fears their altar might crumble.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"A<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The complaint is a parade of consensus incantations\u2014\u201coverwhelming scientific consensus,\u201d \u201cocean of evidence,\u201d \u201cconfirmed time and again\u201d\u2014interrupted only by ad hominem swipes at the Working Group\u2019s r\u00e9sum\u00e9s and reading lists. Curry, they note with horror, has criticized the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for \u201ccorruption.\u201d Koonin once worked for BP. Spencer testified on behalf of a coal company. In other words, these people are contaminated by thoughtcrime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EDF and UCS accuse Wright\u2019s Climate Working Group of operating in secret, holding no public meetings, stacking the deck entirely with \u201ccontrarians,\u201d and failing to genuflect before the holy consensus. They demand the court erase the group\u2019s report, bar EPA from using it to justify repealing the Endangerment Finding, and\u2014naturally\u2014extend public comment periods until the paperwork gods are appeased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, for his part, has called the reconsideration \u201cthe largest deregulatory action in the history of the United States\u201d and a \u201cdagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion\u201d\u2014a metaphor that, judging from the plaintiffs\u2019 reaction, hit the bullseye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In sum, the lawsuit boils down to this: the wrong people were asked the wrong questions and gave the wrong answers. In the plaintiffs\u2019 worldview, \u201cscience\u201d is not a method of inquiry but a franchise with exclusive licensing rights. Any unauthorized competition must be shut down, preferably by federal injunction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One thing\u2019s for sure\u2014this case will test not just the legal durability of the Endangerment Finding, but whether \u201cconsensus\u201d has officially replaced \u201cevidence\u201d as the highest standard in American science. And if the complaint\u2019s tone is any clue, the consensus crowd isn\u2019t feeling particularly confident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Breaking: Climate Consensus Crusaders Sue to Save the Endangerment Finding From\u2026 Skeptics With Opinions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":395055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691829604,691823935,691833542,691837269,691833292,691837270],"class_list":{"0":"post-395049","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-climate-lawsuits","9":"tag-department-of-energy","10":"tag-endangerment-finding","11":"tag-environmental-defense-fund-edf","12":"tag-epa-environmental-protection-agency","13":"tag-union-of-concerned-scientists-ucs","15":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0AQPfcLO9lAEkmgN2nztkL7XAVntRqbpXGHbL8ZCfawqMSvlv_He4MXY88MVtTYE1DYv7jh7xJd_2d87s-BeeG1Dhj33ZDr9AA0_wtaneJ-2Jpd5KLK44l4Qo_xsjronk6nHRyOuqXFVGDcROczOarjKTHBMZEw-1.jpeg?fit=1280%2C1280&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1ELL","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":427384,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=427384","url_meta":{"origin":395049,"position":0},"title":"Climate 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