The Global Climate Coalition’s (GCC) Science and Technology Assessment Committee’s (STAC) June 1996 meeting minutes were submitted along with other GCC documents during discovery in Green Mtn. Chrysler Plymouth Dodge Jeep v. Crombie and Central Valley Chrysler-Jeep, Inc. v. Witherspoon.

In the minutes, the GCC’s mission to monitor and critique domestic and international climate negotiations is clear: “A lot of recent effort has been expended questioning and challenging the [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] (IPCC) Working Group I report Chapter 8 changes.” The memo also shows that 19 to 20 GCC delegates were organized to attend the Second Conference of Parties (COP-2) while domestically the GCC met with the State Department twice following its previous STAC meeting. The GCC continued to voice its opinion to government officials until at least 2001, eventually influencing President George W. Bush, “in part,” to reject the Kyoto Protocol.

Held at American Petroleum Institute’s (API) offices, API’s Howard Feldman distributed and prepared the minutes and Mobil Oil’s Lenny Bernstein coordinated the GCC’s COP-2 efforts. The next meeting was scheduled at the offices of the National Mining Association (NMA).

Beyond representatives from the fossil fuel industry coordinating the committee’s logistics, many attended the meeting as well: Bronson Gardner and John Shlaes (GCC), John Holt (National Rural Electric Cooperative Association), John Kinsman (Edison Electric Institute), Eric Kuhn (Cinergy), George Lamer (Atlantic Richfield Company), Roger Nelson (BHP), Tom Rasmussen (NMA), Chuck Sharp (Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers Association), John Shiller (Ford), Jim Smithson and Peter Womeldorff (Illinois Power, now Ameren), and Fred Starheim (Ohio Edison Company, a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp.).

Other highlights noted in the meeting minutes:

• At State Department meetings and conferences, “[t]he GCC position was one of no need for rushing into any controls.”
• An attached “chart questioning the statement that 1995 was the hottest year” was sent to Bernstein, Shlaes, and Jim Pinto of Texaco (now a part of Chevron).
• STAC used “a [National Economic Research Associates] (NERA) report” in preparation for COP-2. David Harrison of NERA later included work he did for the GCC in 1996 and 1997 on his CV. Now, NERA represents industry interests through stances on initiatives like the Clean Power Plan and The Paris Agreement.
• A STAC review of scientific papers was submitted to GCC’s Operating Committee.
• An unattributed presentation at Senate’s Dirksen Building was presented on “Evidence of Global Warming and its Geographic Effects.”

Interested in more GCC documents? See more in the full Global Climate Coalition collection.