Yet a government memorandum indicates that he met with them after the Clatskanie-Seattle fires when they called him down for correcting misinformation in their communiques.
But with leaked communiques from American diplomats rippling around the world, Clinton told reporters Monday that she will make a point to connect with foreign officials on the trip.
World leaders including Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy have previously met with representatives of the global science community and the text from their statements has ended up in the final summit communiques.
Although G8 summits are renowned for fine communiques, the group increasingly suffers from a credibility problem - some of the world's largest economies like China, India and Brazil are not members, says BBC world affairs correspondent Emily Buchanan.