The United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing today on the accusation that the Bush Administration had interfered on data regarding climate change in order "to mislead the public by injecting doubt into the science of global warming." On January 23, 2007, Chairman Henry Waxman (D) and Tom Davis (R) had requested documents from the Council on Environmental Quality but were denied access.
During the hearing, Henry (D) said that, "The committee isn't trying to obtain state secrets or documents that could affect our immediate national security. We are simply seeking answers to whether the White House's political staff is inappropriately censoring impartial government scientists. We know that the White House possesses documents that contain evidence of an attempt by senior administration officials to mislead the public by injecting doubt into the science of global warming and minimize the potential danger."
Two private advocacy groups, one of which was the Union of Concerned Scientists, also presented a survey to the panel that revealed that 279 scientists working for the government had been pressured into minimizing the threat of global warming in their reports. Almost half of the 279 said that they were told to delete any references to "global warming" or "climate change" in their reports. The scientists in the survey all worked for a wide array of government agencies: NASA, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Agriculture, Department of Energy, Department of Commerce, Department of Defense, and the Department of Interior.
The habit of flat out lying to the public just continues on every front. Global warming is upon us. Our weather is becoming more and more extreme each year as has been forecast by many folks who know more about it than I do. The evidence is becoming harder to deny all the time. Do these folks really think that by trying to hide the information it will not get out and they will not ge shown up for what they really are. This is hardly a matter of national security. It is a matter of National Concern, or at least is should be. 1/1/2009 cannot happen quickly enough for this country to hopefully get it back onto a path more closely resembling sanity and more importantly taking care of our longterm environmental needs by paying attention and incentivising industry and individuals to help care for and protect it.Our future is more than just wasting money and human lives in Iraq, it is also about where we live, having food, resources, tolerable weather and a plan to make it last.
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Waxman’s hearing Tuesday revealed no surprises when witnesses testified that the administration suppressed scientific information about climate change. After all, under Tom Davis’s watch, Waxman had pushed for hearings on the administration’s refusal to allow government scientists to reveal information about climate change, Plan B, abortion and breast cancer, the cost of its Medicare reform, and air and water quality after 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, but Tom Davis refused Waxman’s request in 2005 to hold hearings on the politicization of science, and refused to meet with whistleblowers.
At this week’s hearing, Davis defended the administration’s suppression of science saying, “the issue of politicizing science has itself become politicized.”
He’s an excellent RNC Exec Committee talking head. Or maybe it’s all those “nickles” he took from oil companies talking.
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