Judge rules Energy Department violated law over secret climate working group

A federal judge on Friday ruled that the Energy Department violated the law when Secretary Chris Wright handpicked five researchers who reject the scientific consensus on climate change to work in secret on a government report on global warming, the court said on Jan. 30, 2026. The decision was issued by Judge William Young of the U.S.

District Court for the District of Massachusetts. The Energy Department issued the report, which downplayed the dangers of warming, in late July without holding public meetings or making records available, the ruling said. Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, then cited the report to justify a plan to repeal the endangerment finding, the report said.

The judge found that the Federal Advisory Committee Act of 1972 bars agencies from recruiting or relying on secret groups for policymaking. Judge Young wrote that the Energy Department did not deny failing to hold open meetings or assemble a balance of viewpoints and that the Climate Working Group was a federal advisory committee, not merely a body “assembled to exchange facts or information.” “These violations are now established as a matter of law,” he wrote.

Erin Murphy, a senior attorney with the Environmental Defense Fund, which brought the lawsuit with the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the ruling should undercut the Trump administration’s efforts to eliminate climate regulations. Ms.

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