Associated Press:
"We know that the White House possesses documents that contain evidence of an attempt by senior administration officials to mislead the public by injecting doubt into the science of global warming and minimize the potential danger," said [Committee Chair Henry] Waxman, adding that he is "not trying to obtain state secrets."
Luckily, they don't really need the documents. There's very little doubt that the admin. has been interfering in science for political purposes. First, the White House would have absolutely no reason to withhold the documents otherwise, and second, the scientists say that's exactly what happened:
Union of Concerned Scientists:
UCS distributed surveys to 1,600 climate scientists, asking for information about the state of federal climate research. The scientists who responded reported experiencing at least 435 occurrences of political interference in their work over the past five years. Nearly half of all respondents (46 percent) perceived or personally experienced pressure to eliminate the words "climate change," "global warming," or other similar terms from a variety of communications. Forty-three percent of respondents reported they had perceived or personally experienced changes or edits during review of their work that changed the meaning of their scientific findings. And nearly half (46 percent) perceived or personally experienced new or unusual administrative requirements that impair climate-related work.
UCS and another organization, Government Accountability Project (GAP) have both submitted their findings to the committee.
Tags: news | politics | Bush | global warming | environment | science | congress
