Paid by Alpha Natural Resources, Arch Coal, Peabody Energy and others undisclosed, David Schnare and Chris Horner of Energy and Environment Legal Institute* generate endless time-wasting Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to harass climate scientists, as recently summarized by the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund.  

Reasonable FOIAs are valuable, but the rules can be abused with relatively low effort to impose large costs for “fishing expeditions.” It seems many state governments have not yet clarified rules well enough to avoid waste of taxpayers’ money.

EELI’s open records litigation against the University of Arizona, for the emails of Malcolm Hughes and Jon Overpack, grinds on with another recent development, Schnare is not a member of the Arizona Bar, so involved Jonathan Riches of the Goldwater Institute. In their earlier Reply Brief, p.11, they wrote misleading claims against (deceased) Stephen Schneider, to attack Hughes and Overpeck, starting:

“B. Practices of the Climate Elite work against the Best Interests of the State.
Where academics hold biases and those biases infuse their opinions and where those
opinions inform policy, the potential for mischief is great. Testimony shows this is a serious
problem within the climate change community.  We begin with the late Steven Schneider’s now infamous suggestion to his colleagues, including Drs. Overpeck and Hughes:”

From right to left below (or as PDF)  are :

1. Schneider’s 1989 original words from a long, nuanced Discover interview on the challenges of effective and honest communication.

2. Julian Simon’s 1996 fabrication plus his omission of the key last sentence.

3. Schneider’s 1996 correction, all famous enough to be covered in Wikipedia.

4. At left, Schnare and Riches:

• Falsely claimed Schneider wrote words that he did not, well-documented for 20 years.
• Claimed the nonexistent words were emphasized in the original.
• Repeated Simon’s deceptive omission of the last sentence, but exceeded it by adding emphasis to the previous sentence.

Misleading claims in official documents work against the Best Interests of the State.

See also an earlier discussion of certain George Mason University-trained lawyers, including more details on Schnare, in Ed Wegman, Yasmin Said and Milton Johns Sue Me for $2 Million, pp.115-125.   

*The key EELI staff and tactics remain essentially the same across multiple name changes over the last few years.

Update 06/23/16: Add Peabody to list of funders, as per Peabody Coal Bankruptcy Reveals Climate Denial Network Funding.