By Kevin Mooney ~

House Republicans are pressing efforts to safeguard the First Amendment rights of scientific skeptics who dissent from what they consider the Obama administration’s alarmist position on climate change, according to letters to 17 state attorneys general.

The series of letters, sent Friday and signed by 19 of the 22 Republican members of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, renew an earlier request to the state attorneys general for information detailing their communications with environmental organizations.

House Republicans seek details on links between activist state attorneys general and environmental groups such as Greenpeace, organizer of this demonstration in the Philippines on Nov. 28, 2015. (Photo: Gregorio B. Dantes Jr. / Pacific Press/Newscom)

They also ask for communications between employees for the state attorneys general and the Justice Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, or the White House.

“The committee intends to continue its vigorous oversight of the…