Response To DOE’s Report On Climate Change
- Lucian@going2paris.net
- Sep 2
- 2 min read
Charlottesville
September 2, 2025
I have been following with interest developments on this issue. In a nutshell, DOE hired five folks known to challenge the generally agreed upon positions on climate change to write a report spelling out how folks have got climate change wrong. A group of climate scientists got together to challenge the findings of the DOE report. That is what follows.
To restate my position, the science is clear. Man has accelerated the warming of Earth by its production of greenhouse gases. Projecting the future consequences is difficult because of the incredible complexity of the Earth’s climate systems. But in general the forecasting models indicate there will be significant adverse effects. I support taking reasonable actions starting now (actually before now) to mitigate the effects of climate change.
The response:
On July 29, 2025, the Department of Energy (DOE) published a reportfrom its Climate Working Group (CWG). This report features prominently in the EPA's reconsideration of its 2009 Endangerment Finding. In response, over 85 scientists have come together to write a comprehensive review, which is being submitted to the DOE, EPA, and National Academy review.
Our review reveals that the DOE report's key assertions—including claims of no trends in extreme weather and the supposed broad benefits of carbon dioxide—are either misleading or fundamentally incorrect. The authors reached these flawed conclusions through selective filtering of evidence ('cherry picking'), overemphasis of uncertainties, misquoting peer-reviewed research, and a general dismissal of the vast majority of decades of peer-reviewed research.
No one should doubt that human-caused climate change is real, is already producing potentially dangerous impacts, and that humanity is on track for a geologically enormous amount of warming. No one knows what socioeconomic impacts of this warming will be. It should also be clear that the DOE report's approach to undermining scientific evidence mirrors tactics previously employed by the tobacco industry to create artificial doubt.
Though our review doesn't explicitly address the EPA's 2009 Endangerment Finding, the process of compiling our response made one thing clear: in the 16 years since that finding, evidence of human-caused climate change and its threats to public health and welfare has only strengthened.
Instead of relying on this report, the DOE should instead use the thoroughly vetted assessments from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and National Climate Assessment, which offer more accurate representations of our scientific understanding of climate change.
The response:
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