Court Orders EPA To Turn Over Climate Documents

Washington, D.C., February 24, 2003— The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has ruled in favor of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, ordering the Environmental Protection Agency to produce “climate change” documents, or justify their withholding.  This major victory comes in CEI’s case under the Freedom of Information Act seeking release of evidence of EPA’s efforts to implement the Kyoto global warming treaty “through the backdoor.”

CEI is seeking specific, identified documents showing EPA’s attempts to implement the rejected Kyoto global warming treaty in opposition to congressional prohibition.  The Court also slammed EPA’s failure to account for its shift from “global cooling” to “global warming.”

“Now we can finally begin assessing how far the EPA has gone toward backdoor implementation of the Kyoto Protocol,” said Christopher C. Horner, CEI Counsel who filed the lawsuit.  “We also remain fascinated by a point of which the Court took particular note:  How does EPA explain their shift in alarmism from the global cooling scare of years past to the current emphasis on catastrophic global warming?”

Many of the 124 documents the EPA is unlawfully concealing from public view are expected to show violations of an act of Congress known as “The Knollenberg Provision,” originally sponsored by Rep. Joe Knollenberg (R-MI), which bans the federal government from spending money on efforts to implement the still un-ratified Kyoto.  Others, which the Court slammed EPA for refusing to even attempt to locate, manifest the “cooling” flip.

“By this Order, the D.C. District Court joins CEI’s puzzlement over the Administration’s refusal to turn over documents on the basis that their release ‘may potentially harm U.S. interests in ongoing Kyoto negotiations',” said Horner.  “This adds to the mounting public embarrassments over the refusal by various bureaucrats to execute the President’s rejection of Kyoto, instead continuing to try to cut a deal for a treaty the President assured the public he rejected in America’s interest.”

CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government.  For more information about CEI, please visit our website at www.cei.org.