Congress to investigate NOAA global warming study, issues subpoenas

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.), chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, recently issued subpoenas to the Obama Administration over a scientific study refuting claims that global warming had “paused” or slowed over the last decade.

Smith, a prominent skeptic of the climate change narrative, demanded e-mails and records from U.S. scientists who participated in the study, which allegedly weakens critics’ arguments against the theory that man-made pollution is causing catastrophic global warming.

Democrat Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (Tex.) accused Smith of “furthering a fishing expedition” as the latter requested the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to turn over scientific data, as well as internal communication between employees involved in the study.

Noting that NOAA regularly publishes supporting data for its studies, Johnson said Smith had “not articulated a legitimate need for anything beyond what NOAA has already provided.”

Smith, on the other hand, insists that the subpoena was not harassment, but rather, an “appropriate constitutional oversight” given the current administration’s alleged “lack of openness.”

According to him, “When an agency decides to alter the way it has analyzed historical temperature data for the past few decades, it’s crucial to understand on what basis those decisions were made.”
Source:

ClimateDepot.com