Today, I received an email from a group called Friends of Science condeming the Alberta government's decision to phase out coal-fired power plants.

The society claimed that "renewables like wind and solar are economically and environmentally unsound".

Friends of Science has consistently criticized the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. It's been linked to University of Calgary professor Barry Cooper, a pal of former Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Friends of Science and others groups' insistence on minimizing the role of human beings in climate change has drawn the ire of Ecojustice, which launches legal challenges on behalf of the environmental movement.

It's posted a public letter on its website urging the commissioner of competition, Jon Pecman, to investigate "false and misleading representations made by denier groups".

Ecojustice claims that these claims violate the Competition Act, which regulates advertising messages.

"Attempts to discredit the overwhelming scientific consensus that climate change is real and driven by human activity undermine the public interest by forestalling the clean energy transition we need," the letter states.