Inside the anti-climate campaign against researchers
A POLITICO investigation reveals more than 100 open records requests demanding documents from climate scientists nationwide.
September 25, 2026 | Politico | Chelsea Harvey, Lesley Clark, Corbin Hiar
Conservative organizations are filing open records requests by the dozens at public universities, demanding emails, research drafts, correspondence with law firms and other documents from academics studying climate change.
Targets and their allies say it’s all an effort to undermine the role climate research is playing in litigation against U.S. fossil fuel companies.
It’s the latest strategy in a decades-long campaign by right-leaning groups to discredit scholars whose work could persuade judges and juries in the high-stakes climate cases. Now it’s gathering steam amid a growing push by the Trump administration to block dozens of lawsuits levied at energy companies by communities that were affected by extreme weather…
… “I have never seen this many open records requests in such a short time,” said Lauren Kurtz, executive director of the nonprofit Climate Science Legal Defense Fund, which was founded in 2011 to protect free and open debate within the scientific community, and where many scientists seek advice when they’ve received an open records request. “There is a very concerted effort to derail the state climate litigation cases going on.”