The National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) released its report on how greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) endanger public health on Wednesday, which several energy sector experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation was thrown together to undermine the Trump administration. [emphasis, links added]
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it is moving to roll back the 2009 Endangerment Finding, which determined that GHGs, including carbon dioxide (CO2), can be regulated as they pose a danger to human health and the environment.
In response, NASEM put together a review that argues that GHG emissions are building up in the atmosphere, which contributes to climate change.
However, energy policy experts have previously explained to the DCNF that the Endangerment Finding was not founded on sound evidence and that it has since been used to impose crippling regulations and limit consumer choice.
“Today’s fast-track review is political theater. The National Academy of Sciences [is] using internal funds to rush out a report in an attempt to influence the EPA, even though no federal agency requested it,” Jason Isaac, CEO of the American Energy Institute, told the DCNF. “This is not independent science; it is advocacy in a lab coat.”
The NASEM report argues that recent scientific literature supports EPA’s 2009 conclusion that climate change is expected to worsen ozone pollution and increase risks of respiratory illness.
The report also states that air pollution has been linked to increased “mood and psychotic disorders” like schizophrenia and suicide.
“The committee concludes that the evidence for current and future harm to human health and welfare created by human-caused GHGs is beyond scientific dispute. Much of the understanding of climate change that was uncertain or tentative in 2009 is now resolved, and new threats have been identified,” the report states.
Congress established the National Academy of Sciences [NAS] in 1863 to “investigate, examine, experiment, and report upon any subject of science or art” when asked by the government, according to the Smithsonian.
Notably, NASEM did not conduct a study on COVID-19 origins — despite the government often calling on the Academies for such reviews — but noted its GHG report serves as a public comment to the EPA.
The report was “self-funded” through NASEM funds and endowments, according to the organization’s website.
Several energy sector experts told the DCNF that the NASEM report was rushed, potentially politically motivated, and signals that the Trump administration should cut ties with the organization.
“It is just more evidence of a rigged process that the National Academy of Sciences can produce a report on the EPA’s proposed rescission of the endangerment finding, a mere five weeks after announcing,” Steve Milloy, senior fellow at the Energy & Environment Legal Institute, told the DCNF.
Outrageous climate hoax: The pathetic pretext for the @theNASEM climate report against the Trump EPA proposal to rescind the endangerment finding is last year’s flooding caused by Hurricane Helen, the Los Angels wildfires and the July 4 Texas flooding. Claimed emissions and/or… pic.twitter.com/8QasMO1FyW
— Steve Milloy (@JunkScience) September 17, 2025
Milloy has also pointed out several areas of the report he believes are inaccurate, misleading, or rely on cherry-picked data.
“The committee was comprised exclusively of climate alarmists, and no atmospheric science experts participated. While NAS committee reports usually take on average 21 months to be completed, this report has been rushed to release in a little more than one month.
“The NAS has unfortunately become an activist vs. a scientific advisory group that the federal government provides two-thirds of its funding. President Trump should zero out that funding unless and until the NAS ceases its gross partisanship.”
The review was spearheaded by molecular biologist Shirley M. Tilghman, who also serves as an external science advisor to Science Philanthropy Alliance, which has been linked to the major progressive consulting network known as Arabella Advisors through the New Venture Fund, Fox first reported.
The EPA announced its intent to rescind the Obama-era Endangerment Finding on July 29, which EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said would amount to the biggest deregulatory move in the history of the United States if the EPA has its way.
Zeldin noted on numerous occasions that the Trump EPA is seeking to both safeguard human health and the environment while also paving the way for economic flourishing.
“The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is perverting science with left-wing activism. Its greenhouse gas ‘report’ includes the same biased conclusions used to justify the Green New Scam, which the American people are no longer buying,” Mandy Gunasekara, former Trump EPA chief of staff, told the DCNF.
“Their timeline alone is suspect, going from announcement to publication in just over a month — this is not the work of serious people.”
The EPA has also maintained that it is bound to laws established by Congress, which never explicitly gave the agency authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions for cars and trucks.
Read rest at Daily Caller
In an article on September 17 the Climate Change Dispatch told about the Environmental Defense Fund and Union of Concerned Scientists filing a law suit against the Department of Energy report challenging many of the mainstream narratives surrounding climate change. One basis for the law suit was none of the five authors buys into the climate change narrative. Yet, as stated in this article, the NAS committee writing the rushed report defending the endangerment finding was comprised exclusively of climate alarmists, and no atmospheric science experts participated. So, it is okay to have committees comprised exclusively of alarmists, but not committees that have no alarmists.
The Clean Air Act REQUIRES that an Endangerment Finding be followed by issuance of a National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for the endangering “pollutant”. EPA has failed to issue the legally required NAAQS for 16 years. Therefore, the 2009 Endangerment Finding is legally defective and should have been rescinded more than a decade ago. Interestingly, UCS & EDF have not sued EPA over this failure to comply with the CAA. 😉