America’s clean energy transition has often collided with political and legal resistance, but the latest battlefront is in academia. According to The New York Times, Brown University is under pressure from a Washington law firm representing opponents of offshore wind farms, demanding the retraction of research that connects anti-wind groups to conservative networks.
Marzulla Law L.L.C., a firm with deep ties to the conservative legal movement, called the research by Brown’s Climate and Development Lab “false and injurious.” In an August 11 letter to the university’s general counsel, founding partner Roger J. Marzulla threatened to escalate the issue to Brown’s public and private funders, including the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation.
Brown, however, stood by its principles. University spokesman Brian E. Clark told the Times, “Scholars shape their own research and course of instruction at Brown. One principle that is core to research at Brown is the ability for scholars to discuss contested topics and themes and to have those topics openly debated.”
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