After sending a letter to the Commerce Department on Friday about the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) refusal to turn over internal documents related to a climate study, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) on Wednesday sent another letter to Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, saying that the NOAA rushed the study to publication.
Smith, chairman of the House Science Committee, has been asking the NOAA since July to release internal communications between NOAA scientists regarding a study released in June that contradicted previous studies findings that global warming had slowed. The congressman said in October that the NOAA altered “the data to get the results they needed to advance this administration’s extreme climate change agenda.” The agency denied the accusation.
The NOAA has refused to turn over internal communications, citing the importance of the confidentiality of scientists’ discussion of their research. Smith subpoenaed the NOAA in October for interviews with four agency employees and scientists. He then appealed to Pritzker on Friday, calling for her to direct the NOAA to hand over the documents.
Less than a week later, Smith has sent another letter to Pritzker threatening “use of compulsory process” unless the NOAA releases the internal communications by Friday.
In the letter, Smith wrote that a whistleblower informed the House committee that the NOAA rushed the June climate study to publication despite concerns from scientists at the agency who felt the study was not yet ready.
“Information provided to the Committee by whistleblowers appears to show that the Karl study was rushed to publication despite the concerns and objections of a number of NOAA scientists, ignoring established and standard NOAA scientific processes and potentially violating NOAA’s scientific integrity policies,” he wrote. “NOAA employees raised concerns about the timing and integrity of the process but were ignored.”
The congressman added, “Because the Karl study was apparently prematurely rushed to publication, the timing of its release raises concerns that it was expedited to fit the administration’s aggressive climate agenda.”
Read the entire letter here.
‘Concerns’ like
"Information provided to the Committee by whistleblowers "
Translation: “We have people who will say whatever the flying fuck we need them to and it’s almost unassailable because we can claim the need to protect them and keep their identity anonymous.”
That’s one of the right-wing’s main complaints about big government–it is always so fast and nimble.
I bet he meant dogwhistle blowers.
‘Whistleblowers’ like this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snqFHjpDpes