by Chris Horner
Guest Essay,
Watts Up With That?
The curiously titled article, “Climate scientists, facing skeptics’ demands for personal emails, learn how to cope”, in today’s E&E News “ClimateWire”http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2014/01/21/stories/1059993161 (paywalled), is characteristic of a recent uptick in the campaign to discourage universities and courts from properly interpreting open records laws for all requesters — not just the right kindof requester.
The piece opens somewhat oddly: “In the spring of 2012, Andrew Dessler, a climate scientist at Texas A&M University, received a somewhat unusual request: The American Tradition Institute, a conservative group, wanted to search through his emails”, yet several paragraphs later wrote “Schmidt and a number of others had already been on the receiving end of such requests.”
