Virginia Politics Blog - U-Va. receives new FOIA for global warming documents

The group notes that FOIA law gives the university just one week to respond to the request. If the school legally resists, it says it is prepared for a court fight.

"We can then, finally, determine what it is that so many have gone to such great lengths to keep the public from knowing about that which the public has paid for," they said in a statement.

The group's senior director of litigation, Christopher Horner, has written two books on why he believes global warming is a hoax and gives frequently speeches on the subject. He is also a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

In a statement, Mann noted that the think tank receives funding from ExxonMobile and other corporate groups.

"Industry-funded lobbyists like Horner have been using precisely the same tactics for decades to intimidate scientists whose scientific findings proved inconvenient to the vested interests they represent such as the tobacco, pharmaceutical, and chemical industries," he said.