Think Tank Skeptical of Global Warming Calls Subpoena an ‘Affront to First Amendment Rights’

The Wall Street Journal reports on the subpoena an attorney general sent CEI to silence the debate on climate change. 

A coalition of law-enforcement officials led by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has been looking at whether Exxon misled investors and the public by downplaying the impact of climate change, claims the oil company says are false.

The Competitive Enterprise Institute on Thursday said Thursday it received a subpoena from U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General Claude E. Walker giving the group less than a month to turn over public and private records of its communications with Exxon concerning climate change. The subpoena, which was reviewed by Law Blog, covers a 10-year period ending in 2007.

Among the records requested are:

All Documents reflecting or concerning meetings with or including ExxonMobil and/or third parties acting on behalf of ExxonMobil concerning Climate Change, including but not limited to meetings discussing or presenting . . . strategies, plans, or activities to impact public views on Climate Change; the likelihood that or extent to which carbon dioxide, methane, oil and gas extraction or use, or any of the products sold or activities carried out by ExxonMobil impact Climate Change directly or indirectly; the accuracy or credibility of research or researchers examining Climate Change; or the accuracy or credibility of models or assessments of the likelihood, certainty, uncertainty, scope, causes, or impacts of Climate Change.

CEI said it would seek to quash the subpoena, calling it “an affront” to its First Amendment rights. “If Walker and his allies succeed, the real victims will be all Americans, whose access to affordable energy will be hit by one costly regulation after another, while scientific and policy debates are wiped out one subpoena at a time,” CEI’s general counsel Sam Kazman said in a statement.

Read the full article at the Wall Street Journal.