A New York judge has ordered the state's Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to turn over any documents that pertain to a confidentiality deal about climate change investigations, according to The Washington Times.
Based on the ruling, Schneiderman has 30 days to fulfill a Freedom of Information request that the Competitive Enterprise Institute filed in May. The Institute sought the documentation on a pact that was made with other states or environmental activists to look into fossil fuel companies and climate change critics.
The Competitive Enterprise Institute is a libertarian advocacy group financed in part by the coal industry, according to The New York Times.
Seventeen attorneys general, including 16 Democrats and one independent, signed the confidentiality deal.
In June, a Schneiderman staff member denied the Freedom of Information request, saying it pertained to an active case and said a copy of the pact was already available online, the Times reported.
According to The New York Times, Schneiderman is probing ExxonMobil over revelations that the company had studied climate change decades ago, then funded groups that promoted doubt about the issue.
The Competitive Enterprise Institute's general counsel Sam Kazman praised the decision as "a blow to the anti-speech campaign" of Schneiderman.
"While the campaign by him and his cohorts that began in March continues against those who disagree with him on global warming, we are glad to see that it is being held subject to the basic laws of the land," Kazman said, according to the Washington Times.
New York Acting Supreme Court Justice Henry F. Zwack said that Schneiderman's office's reason for denying the request did not meet the criteria for "denial of access" and it was not clear how many documents were involved.
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