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Climate change report suppressed by EPA?

By Jennifer J. Foster

Posted 07/03 at 10:33 AM (1) Comments

Did you guys hear about this?

A top Republican senator has ordered an investigation into the Environmental Protection Agency’s alleged suppression of a report that questioned the science behind global warming.

The 98-page report, co-authored by EPA analyst Alan Carlin, pushed back on the prospect of regulating gases like carbon dioxide as a way to reduce global warming. Carlin’s report argued that the information the EPA was using was out of date, and that even as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have increased, global temperatures have declined ...

According to internal e-mails that have been made public by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Carlin’s boss told him in March that his material would not be incorporated into a broader EPA finding and ordered Carlin to stop working on the climate change issue. The draft EPA finding released in April lists six greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, that the EPA says threaten public health and welfare.

A couple of curious things here:

According to the article, Carlin is an economist, not a scientist. EPA officials say his information would not be incorporated in the finding because he included “no original research.“

In addition, Carlin’s work was “unsolicited,“ according to an unnamed EPA official quoted in the story:

“It was something that he did on his own,“ the official said. “Though he was not qualified, his manager indulged him and allowed him on agency time to draft up ... a set of comments.“

Hold up. Do we really have EPA analysts sitting around with enough time on their hands that they can chase their own rabbits? Get me budgeting on the phone.

Soooo ... if EPA officials are to be believed, Carlin’s work was neither necessary nor properly done, and they knew these things going in. Why, then, would Carlin’s manager “indulge” him by allowing him to chase the project to begin with? Sounds like we have some management issues in the EPA.

Strange, don’t you think, that this story alleging an EPA cover-up about greenhouse gases comes to light just days after the House of Representatives passed substantial legislation regarding climate change (a/k/a the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES); a/k/a “cap and trade bill”)?

Here’s part of one e-mail Carlin received from his superior, National Center for Environmental Economics Director Al McGartland:

“The administrator and the administration has decided to move forward on endangerment, and your comments do not help the legal or policy case for this decision,“ he wrote, according to the e-mails released by CEI. “I can only see one impact of your comments given where we are in the process, and that would be a very negative impact on our office.“

He later wrote an e-mail urging Carlin to “move on to other issues and subjects.“

“I don’t want you to spend any additional EPA time on climate change. No papers, no research, etc., at least until we see what EPA is going to do with climate,“ McGartland wrote.

Carlin says this is a classic case of the tail wagging the dog; EPA officials say that Carlin’s opinions were considered, they just didn’t meet scientific muster.

Republicans are hopping mad about this. If you didn’t hear about this story this week, you will—if not before the Senate considers the ACES/cap-and-trade bill, then certainly in those hearings.

You can learn a lot from Huntsville

By Jennifer J. Foster

Posted 07/03 at 07:26 AM (0) Comments

If you are at all interested in what’s going on in Washington vis-a-vis health care reform (and if you aren’t interested, um ... hellllloooo, McFly??? Is there anybody home???), then you need to yourself to read this post over on Flashpoint.

My friend Brian, who maintains Flashpoint, attended the town hall meeting convened by U.S. Rep. Parker Griffith last night, and he gives us the 411 on what went down.

You may or may not agree with Brian’s philosophical assessment of the roots of the health care problems. But whatever your personal beliefs, here’s the upshot: Health care reform—the kind of massive, government-driven overhaul espoused at times by President Obama—simply isn’t going to pass without the support of moderate to conservative Democrats like Griffith. And if what happened last night in Huntsville is at all indicative of what other lawmakers are hearing at home during the break ... well, this line from Brian pretty much sums it up:

If that meeting is any indication of how people feel elsewhere then I’ll tell you right now - the safest thing any politician can do is stay away from the issue. Everyone is EXTREMELY passionate and, often, quite irrational.