Markey wants Heartland climate documents

Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) pressed the Heartland Institute Friday for original copies of internal strategy and budget documents that were obtained and released by a well-known climate researcher earlier this month.

The documents include plans for developing a K-12 curriculum that raises questions about climate science, as well as plans for funding high-profile climate skeptics.

The Heartland Institute, a free-market group that rejects mainstream climate science, has called one of the documents a fake, though the group has confirmed the K-12 curriculum plan.

In a letter to Heartland Institute President Joseph Bast, Markey asked the group for an explanation of any inaccuracies in the leaked documents as well as accurate versions of those documents.

“These documents appear to indicate that the Heartland Institute is receiving large donations from corporations for the direct purpose of discrediting the mainstream science of climate change and has planned to engage in a campaign to undermine the teaching of well-established science at our public schools,” Markey, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, said in the letter.

The documents have caused a firestorm in Washington, with activists and others bashing the Heartland Institute for its plan to influence students.

The vast majority of the world's scientists say the earth is warming in large part due to human activity such as burning fossil fuels.

Peter Gleick — president of the California-based Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security — admitted this week to releasing the documents to the news media.

— Ben Geman contributed to this report.