House lawmakers will renew their long-dormant investigation into the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on the heels of whistleblower testimony that agency scientists rushed a landmark global warming study to influence policymakers. “The chairman intends to push for responses to his initial requests,” an aide for the Committee on Science, Space and Technology told reporters on a press call Monday, “to uncover exactly what was going on” at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Texas Republican Rep. Lamar Smith, the committee’s chairman, will “move forward as soon as possible” in asking NOAA to hand over documents included in a 2015 subpoena on potential climate data tampering. –Michael Bastasch, The Daily Caller, 6 February 2017
A key Obama administration scientist brushed aside inconvenient data that showed a slowdown in global warming in compiling an alarming 2015 report that coincided with the White House participation in the Paris Climate Conference, a whistle blower is alleging. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, chairman of the House Science Committee, questioned the timing, noting the paper was published just before the Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan was submitted to the Paris Climate Conference of 2015. “In the summer of 2015, whistleblowers alerted the Committee that the Karl study was rushed to publication before underlying data issues were resolved to help influence public debate about the so-called Clean Power Plan and upcoming Paris climate conference,” Smith said in a statement. “Since then, the Committee has attempted to obtain information that would shed further light on these allegations, but was obstructed at every turn by the previous administration’s officials.” —Fox News, 7 February 2017
John Bates is not fighting this fight alone. Representative Lamar Smith, chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, has been asking NOAA for all communications related to Karl’s report, but the agency has refused to cooperate. In October 2015, Smith’s committee issued subpoenas for the documents; NOAA released some technical papers but not the requested correspondence, arguing that taxpayer-paid scientists don’t have to disclose their emails with other taxpayer-paid scientists about a taxpayer-paid study. With a sympathetic administration in power, Smith should now be able to get to the bottom of how the Karl study was conducted and who else helped move it along. And despite the personal attacks on his character and credibility, Bates’s actions could have long-lasting repercussions, not the least of which could be to encourage others to speak out about what’s been going on at federal scientific agencies. It’s long overdue. –Julie Kelly, National Review, 7 February 2017
Now we hear from an eminent whistleblower with America’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that the organisation used dodgy data to claim the “pause” in global warming from 1998 never existed, and had rushed to publish without the usual checks in order to influence the Paris Agreement on climate change. The almost 20-year “pause” or “hiatus” in global surface warming since 1998 was confirmed in 2013 by UN scientists and has been an awkward stumbling block for climate alarmists who insist the world’s temperature is soaring skyward at an exponential rate. Thus, Pause Debunking has become a competitive sport for alarmist scientists. –Miranda Devine, The Daily Telegraph, 7 February 2017
BP’s recent Energy Outlook 2017 has given the impression to some journalists that the oil giant sees fossil fuels in a hopeless long term struggle with a renewable energy steamroller squeezing the life out of all others through sheer competitive advantage. However, careful reading of a key chart in the Outlook tells a different story. Coal and gas will remain fundamentally cheap for decades, while renewables will remain dependent on fragile market distorting policies. –John Constable, GWPF Energy Comment, 7 February 2017
Poland threatened to sue the European Union (EU) over its global warming regulations, according to documents seen by Reuters. An EU deal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent by 2030, fulfilling its [Paris] pledge to the United Nations, poses problems for EU member-state Poland. Poland is challenging the legal basis for the EU’s global warming rules, and is determined to bring the case to the European Court of Justice (ECJ), though an unnamed source doesn’t think Poland will go that far. EU global warming rules require unanimous consent from all 28 member-nations, meaning that Poland could block them. –Andrew Follett, The Daily Caller, 7 February 2017
