Subverting Science: Your Tax Dollars at Work

Andrew C Revkin and Matthew L. Wald, writing in the New York Times, report:

A House committee released documents Monday that showed hundreds of instances in which a White House official who was previously an oil industry lobbyist edited government climate reports to play up uncertainty of a human role in global warming or play down evidence of such a role.


The authors note his close and continuing employment by the oil industry (before and after his government service) and that:

Mr. Cooney, who has no scientific background, said he had based his editing and recommendations on what he had seen in good faith as the “most authoritative and current views of the state of scientific knowledge.”


Fundamentally this is similar to having, say, Peter Woit, review and redact any String Theory papers he disapproved of. Except the Peter Woit has relevant scientific training and expertise. And he does not make his living off those who would profit from string theory being impeded.

Another anti-science minder also testified:

The hearing also produced the first sworn statements from George C. Deutsch III, who moved in 2005 from the Bush re-election campaign to public affairs jobs at NASA. There he warned career press officers to exert more control over James E. Hansen, the top climate expert at the space agency.


Mr. Deutsch resigned after it was revealed he had falsified his resume by claiming to have graduated from Texas A&M.

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