The global warming debate on Capitol Hill is heating up. Government scientists refused to comply with lawmakers’ demands they turn over internal documents regarding a study that eliminated the “hiatus” in global warming from the temperature record.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) officials
argued such records are confidential and “essential to frank discourse among scientists.” The science agency said it has a history of protecting the “confidentiality of deliberative scientific discussions.”
NOAA’s decision not to comply with a subpoena from House science committee lawmakers has only angered Chairman Lamar Smith , a Texas Republican, who says Americans have a right to know what taxpayer-funded scientists were thinking when they
altered the temperature record in June.
“It was inconvenient for this administration that climate data has clearly showed no warming for the past two decades,” Smith said in an emailed statement. “The American people have every right to be suspicious when NOAA alters data to get the politically correct results they want and then refuses to reveal how those decisions were made.”
