Barton, Walden Press Obama Administration to Unearth & Report Links With Climatologists
WASHINGTON - U.S. Reps. Joe Barton, R-Texas, ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Greg Walden, R-Ore., ranking member of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, today asked the Obama administration to open its records on links with the climatologists whose plot-laden emails have recently stirred controversy and threatened to throw their scientific work into disrepute.
In letters to Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Department of Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Barton and Walden have asked for a full accounting of any role the agencies played in funding, in handling FOIA requests and in data sharing involving the climate scientists whose emails to one another painted a picture of manipulation that seemed to sacrifice science to public relations with an overarching fear of exposure driving their decision-making.
"We note that employees and researchers supported by the Department of Energy, the National Nuclear Security Administration and/or Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory figure prominently in the emails, especially LLNL scientist Dr. Benjamin Santer and DOE-funded scientist Dr. Phil Jones of the University of East Anglia, who appears to be at the center of the email collection," Barton and Walden wrote to Chu. "Some of the emails raise concerns about researchers' efforts to evade or circumvent the Freedom of Information Act, and DOE's compliance with FOIA in responses to such requests. The discussions among researchers reflected in the emails also raise questions concerning the integrity of some of the DOE-funded research at issue in the emails and the researchers' adherence to federal data sharing guidelines, policy, and oversight."
Barton and Walden asked Chu and Locke to address these, and other issues in their requests:
- Explain and provide copies of DOE, NNSA, LLNL, NOAA and Department of Commerce FOIA procedures for collecting requested FOIA information, ensuring the information is complete and responsive and for closing out the request.
- Provide copies of any additional FOIA requests that have been submitted to DOE, NNSA, LLNL, NOAA and/or the Department of Commerce relating to modeled and observed temperature trends relating to climate change assessments, and provide copies of all documents and records provided in response to such FOIA and/or follow-up requests.
- Identify and provide copies of DOE and NOAA data-sharing policies and procedures to ensure compliance with those policies.
- Describe DOE and NOAA climate science grant funding procedures and oversight of such funding.
- Describe the nature and amount of all funding provided by DOE in whole or part to Dr. Phil Jones, the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit, and other researchers at that institution, including funding for climate change related research and assessments.
- What oversight, if any, has been conducted by DOE, NNSA, and LLNL relating to the work of Dr. Phil Jones and any other grantees associated with CRU?
The lawmakers have asked for a full response no later than Dec. 16.
Copies of the letters to Chu and Locke can be found here and here.
Courtesy: Energy & Commerce Committee Republicans
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