Climate reports targeted for review due to ‘bias’

The assessments are removed for now from government websites, to scientists’ alarm.

- By Hay.Ley SMITH

ENERGY SECRETARY Chris Wright, center, called scientific climate change reports "politically driven."

CHIP SOMODEVILLA Getty Images

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said this week that the Trump administration plans to review and potentially alter the nation’s climate science reports.

In a Tuesday appearance on CNN’s “The Source,” Wright told CNN host Kaitlan Collins that the National Climate Assessments have been removed from government websites “because we're reviewing them.”

“We will come out with updated reports on those and with comments on those,” Wright said.

The National Climate Assessments are mandated by Congress and have been released five times since 2000. The federal reports, prepared by hundreds of volunteer scientists, are subject to extensive peer review and detail how climate change is affecting each region of the United States so far and provide the latest scientific forecasts.

Wright accused the previous reports of being politically biased, stating that they “are not fair assessments of the data.”

“When you get into departments and look at stuff that’s there and you find stuff that’s objectionable, you want to fix it,” he said.