Scientists challenge misleading Department of Energy climate report » Yale Climate Connections

On July 29, 2025, the Trump Administration’s Department of Energy issued a report about the impacts of greenhouse gases on the U.S. climate. Not surprisingly, the report downplays the threat of climate change and fossil fuels, in keeping with the administration’s other anti-climate-action measures. (See, for instance, this recent piece about Energy Secretary Chris Wright from the New York Times.)

The backlash from the American scientific community began immediately and will certainly continue. The public comment period ended on September 2, at which point 59,563 comments had been received by the government. So this collection of news reports and scientists’ responses is an early snapshot.

One thing to note: The Environmental Protection Agency’s “endangerment finding” is the ruling that greenhouse gases count as harmful pollutants and are therefore subject to government regulation. Several of the news stories mention the efforts of President Donald Trump and his administration to get rid of this finding — and the fear of scientists and climate-aware policy makers that the new Department of Energy report might be designed to bolster those efforts in litigation.

“Contrarian climate assessment from U.S. government draws swift pushback.” Paul Voosen, Science, July 30. This is a good overview of both the report and the initial pushback.

“The practice and assessment of science: five foundational flaws in the Department of Energy’s 2025 Climate Report.” American Meteorological Society, August 27. “This document emphasizes overarching flaws with the process used in the development of the DoE report.” Readable and pointed discussion of key problems with the report.

“Trump team’s contentious climate report ‘makes a mockery of science’, experts say.” Oliver Milman and Dharna Noor, The Guardian, September 2. A good summary of the main points of a 434-page rebuttal created by over 85 climate experts. For additional context, see “Scientists denounce Trump administration’s climate report.” Lisa Friedman and Sachi Kitajima Mulkey, New York Times, September 2. Good stories about this rebuttal were also produced by National Public Radio, Time Magazine, CBS News, and other news outlets. Each offers different details.

“Factcheck: Trump’s climate report includes more than 100 false or misleading claims.” Ayesha Tandon, Leo Hickman, Cecilia Keating, and Robert McSweeney, Carbon Brief, August 13. Excellent specifics in an accessible format.

For a sampling of readable expert responses from individual climate scientists, see:

• “5 forecasts early climate models got right—the evidence is all around you.” Nadir Jeevanjee, The Conversation, September 3.
• “Comments submitted . . . “ Peter Gleick, September 2. This response submitted to the government during the public comment period focuses on the “failure to include any review or assessment of the long history of published documents from the US defense and intelligence communities on the direct and indirect threats to the United States national security from climate changes.”
• The Climate Brink website, which features several recent responses to particular points in the Department of Energy report from Andrew Dressler and Zeke Hausfather. These include, for instance, Hausfather’s “How the DOE and EPA used and misused my research.”