Barbara Freese is an environmental attorney and writer, with a particular focus on climate change, energy policy, and corporate social responsibility. She is a former Minnesota assistant attorney general and a former senior policy analyst for the Union of Concerned Scientists, and she has represented various environmental and clean energy nonprofit groups working to protect the climate.

Her books include Coal: A Human History and Industrial-Strength Denial: Eight Stories of Corporations Defending the Indefensible, from the Slave Trade to Climate Change. She lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.