Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen is leading a 24-state coalition urging the Trump administration to investigate the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and the National Science Foundation, and to cut off federal grant funding tied to a climate science chapter used in a judicial reference manual.
In a letter sent this month to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Energy Secretary Chris Wright, the coalition argued the chapter in the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence was produced through a biased process and should no longer receive taxpayer support.
Knudsen and the other attorneys general contend the chapter presents conflicts of interest and violates the terms of an NSF grant because it relied on contributors they describe as climate activists who have been involved in advocacy, litigation and expert testimony in active climate-related cases. The coalition argues that taxpayer dollars should not be used to fund materials that could influence judges in pending or future litigation.
