Environmental Defense Fund, Inc. v. Wright

The court entered a judgment declaring that the Climate Working Group was not exempt from Federal Advisory Committee Act requirements; declaring that the court was satisfied that the federal government had remedied the informational injury by disclosing records; and dismissing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a defendant because there was “no persuasive evidence of conduct violative of the FACA on the part of any entity outside of the Department of Energy and Secretary Wright.”

On January 23, 2026, the federal district court for the District of Massachusetts granted Environmental Defense Fund and Union of Concerned Scientists’ motion to compel disclosure of the names of federal government employees who reviewed and provided comments on the report prepared by the Climate Working Group convened by the Secretary of Energy to “provide clarity and balance” regarding climate science. Two days earlier, the court granted in part the organizations’ request to compel disclosure of records withheld pursuant to the deliberative process privilege under Freedom of Information Act Exemption 5.