GOP lawmakers, in a letter to the EPA, asked that the anticipated step of regulating GHGs under the Clean Air Act be halted "until the agency can demonstrate the science underlying these regulatory decisions has not been compromised," the Los Angeles Times reported today. They referred to recent news of e-mails among climate scientists that allegedly encouraged skewing data to reflect their own positions on climate change. Sen. James M. Inhofe, R-Okla., was quoted as telling a hearing: "One cannot deny that the e-mails raised fundamental questions concerning ... transparency and openness in science."
Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., R-Wis., co-authored the letter and said the e-mails "read more like scientific fascism than the scientific process. It's time to take back the notion that the 'science is settled'." Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., had another view: "People write ridiculous e-mails when they're in the middle of a fight. To me, what's important is, e-mails aside, is there global warming? Is it being affected by human activity? And there's nothing out there that says otherwise."
The Washington Times reported today charges by Christopher C. Horner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and author of "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism," that NASA had refused to make public data or reports that "would show how the agency has shaped its climate data and explain why the agency has repeatedly had to correct its data dating as far back as the 1930s," the Times wrote. Horner was quoted as saying: "I assume that what is there is highly damaging. These guys are quite clearly bound and determined not to reveal their internal discussions about this."
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said that "several thousand scientists have come to the conclusion that climate change is happening. I don't think that's anything that is, quite frankly, among most people, in dispute anymore," the Times reported. Penn State University scientist Michael Mann, facing criticism for his involvement in the e-mail exchanges, "said the e-mails' release was timed to interfere with next week's U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen," wrote the Times. Mann was quoted as saying: "They've taken scientists' words and phrases and quoted them out of context, completely misrepresenting what they were saying."
