Seventeen Republican state attorneys general, led by Montana AG Austin Knudsen, are pressing the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to remove a chapter on climate science from its Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence: Fourth Edition. In a letter to NAS President Marcia McNutt and incoming president Neil Shubin, the officials argued that the section misrepresents scientific data while advancing a political agenda, particularly targeting fossil fuels and climate litigation.

The chapter in question was co-authored by academics from Columbia University with known left-leaning positions, including Jessica Wentz and Radley Horton, who have advocated for phasing out fossil fuels and instructing judges on climate-related lawsuits. Other contributors, such as Michael Burger and Michael Gerrard, have publicly supported using litigation to enforce decarbonization goals.

The Republican attorneys general warned that federal funding of over $200 million annually should not support political advocacy. “Taxpayer money should not be used for political causes, particularly by an entity that Congress created to provide independent and objective scientific reports,” their letter reads. They also noted that the Federal Judicial Center had already removed the chapter after similar concerns.

The coalition includes attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, and Wyoming. Conservative groups, including American Energy and Consumers’ Research, expressed support for the effort.

Knudsen and the other Republican leaders are demanding that NAS provide a clear explanation for why the chapter remains available and assurances that future editions will avoid political bias. They argued that taxpayer-funded scientific institutions must remain neutral to maintain public trust in both the courts and the federal scientific enterprise.