GOP chairman: Agency obstructing climate science probe

A top House Republican is accusing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of obstructing its investigation into controversial climate change research.

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), chairman of the House Science Committee, said NOAA’s assertion of confidentiality over scientists’ internal communications is not legally valid.

{mosads}In a Wednesday letter, he again demanded records of communications between scientists involved in a study that concluded that there has been no recent pause in global warming.

Smith threatened NOAA head Kathryn Sullivan with civil or criminal action if she does not comply with his previous subpoena. 

“Your failure to comply with the committee’s subpoena has delayed the committee’s investigation and thwarted the committee’s constitutional obligation to conduct oversight of the executive branch,” Smith wrote in the letter. “Furthermore, your failure to comply with a duly issued subpoena may expose you to civil and/or criminal enforcement mechanisms.”

The study struck a nerve among global warming skeptics such as Smith, because it asserted that a top argument of skeptics — that global warming cannot exist because the earth stopped warming for at least 15 years — is not true.

Smith is accusing the NOAA of political bias and interference in its research and saying that only the internal documents could prove that no such bias exists.

The NOAA fought back last month, accusing Smith of seeking confidential information that would breach the integrity of the scientific process. The agency has been providing Smith and his staff with detailed data, studies, explanations and briefings, including with the scientists themselves, but the congressman said that is not enough.

“Contrary to NOAA’s public comments, it is not the position of NOAA to determine what is, or is not, responsive to the committee’s investigation or whether certain communications are confidential,” he wrote.

Smith demanded that the NOAA provide the documents he wants by Friday and wants his staff to interview Tom Karl, the lead scientist on the study, by next Tuesday.