[20 years too late]

con•spir•a•cy (kən-spîr'ə-sē) n. pl. con•spir•a•cies An agreement to perform together an illegal, wrongful, or subversive act. A group of conspirators. Law An agreement between two or more persons to commit a crime or accomplish a legal purpose through illegal action. A joining or acting together, as if by sinister design: a conspiracy of wind and tide that devastated coastal areas. [Middle English conspiracie, from Anglo-Norman, probably alteration of Old French conspiration, from Latin cōnspīrātiō, cōnspīrātiōn-, from cōnspīrātus, past participle of cōnspīrāre, to conspire; see conspire.]

[antiRepublicrat]

From a law dictionary:

conspiracy n. when people work together by agreement to commit an illegal act. A conspiracy may exist when the parties use legal means to accomplish an illegal result, or to use illegal means to achieve something that in itself is lawful. To prove a conspiracy those involved must have agreed to the plan before all the actions have been taken, or it is just a series of independent illegal acts. A conspiracy can be criminal for planning and carrying out illegal activities, or give rise to a civil lawsuit for damages by someone injured by the conspiracy. Thus, a scheme by a group of salesmen to sell used automobiles as new, could be prosecuted as a crime of fraud and conspiracy, and also allow a purchaser of an auto to sue for damages for the fraud and conspiracy.

So we have two angles here. The criminal one is the conspiracy to avoid the FOI law. The civil one is the conspiracy to falsify the basis to implement higher taxes and costs for the people in the name of AGW. Maybe a class action after Cap & Tax gets passed?