US Lawmakers Demand Probe Into Claims EPA Suppressed CO2 Study
By Ian Talley, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Republican lawmakers are demanding an investigation
into claims that the Environmental Protection Agency suppressed a staff-prepared
study that argues against the agency's proposal that greenhouse gases are a
danger to public health.
Besides asking for an Inspector General investigation, lawmakers are also
asking the agency to re-open the controversial rulemaking to allow inclusion of
the study.
The Competitive Enterprise Institute, or CEI, last week released an 85-page
scientific study authored by two EPA staff that undercuts the agency's "
endangerment" decision, as well as several emails that show the agency rejected
inclusion of the report in its rulemaking process.
The CEI accused EPA management of suppressing the work of senior EPA economist
Alan Carlin and EPA environmental scientist John Davidson "for political
reasons."
Senator James Inhofe, R-Okla., ranking member of the Senate Environment and
Public Works Committee, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., ranking member of the House
Oversight Committee, and Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., are now grilling the agency
over why the study wasn't originally included.
EPA Press Secretary Adora Andy said Carlin's "general views on the subject of
climate change" were "heard and considered inside and outside the EPA and
presented at conferences and at an agency seminar."
"The claims that his opinions were not considered or studied are entirely
false," Andy said in a statement.
CEI, which calls itself a "public interest group dedicated to free enterprise
and limited government," opposes the Obama administration's efforts to regulate
greenhouse gases.
The Endangerment proposal is one step in the rulemaking process that paves the
way for regulation of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. Congress,
meanwhile, is moving forward with its own regulatory approach based on the
assumption that greenhouse gases are a danger to the public.
"I am concerned about the credibility of the Obama administration's arguments
in favor of increased environmental activism and government regulation now that
it is clear that legitimate differences of opinion are not tolerated within the
EPA," Sen. Thune said.
Matthew Dempsey, a spokesman for Sen. Inhofe, said his boss was probing the
matter with the agency because of the seriousness of the charges.
"This is an administration that promised an 'unprecedented' level of
transparency and accountability, yet, it is actively seeking to withhold new
data in order to justify a political conclusion," Rep. Issa said. "The American
people deserve to know all the facts, not have their information filtered or
censored based on what is politically convenient for the administration," he
said.
The CEI said the emails reveal a political agenda.
"The administrator and the administration has decided to move forward on
endangerment and your comments do not help the legal or policy case for this
decision," Al McGartland, director of the National Center for Environmental
Economics, told Carlin in a March 17 email released by CEI. McGartland said
another reason not to include Carlin's study is because "this is not a criteria
document for climate change and greenhouse gases."
Carlin's comments, he said, would cause a "very negative impact on our
office." Carlin said he didn't provide his emails to the CEI.
Referring to Carlin, EPA spokeswoman Andy said "certain opinions were
expressed by an individual who is not a scientist and was not part of the
working group dealing with this issue."
Still, Carlin was allowed to make general presentations on climate change "
inside and outside the EPA and presented at conferences and at an agency
seminar," Andy said.
Further, Carlin was allowed to join a committee that organizes an ongoing
climate seminar series. The study was largely written by Carlin, but also
includes work by EPA environmental scientist John Davidson.
Carlin and Davidson have been with the agency since its inaugural years in the
early 1970s. Carlin holds a doctorate in economics from Massachusetts Institute
of Technology and a bachelor's degree in physics from California Institute of
Technology, Pasadena, Calif. He has published a raft of papers in recent years
examining climate change regulatory systems in journals such as the
Environmental Law and Policy Review. Davidson holds a doctorate in physics from
the University of Michigan.
According a March 16 email, two-thirds of Carlin's study referenced peer-
review publications. The remainder referenced "significant new research" since
the publishing of the United Nations's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
last report, a seminal document that the U.S. government is using as a
foundation for its climate policies.
The references to the new studies, he says, "are significant because they
present information critical to the justification (or lack thereof) for the
proposed endangerment finding," Carlin said in the email.
The EPA late last week allowed Carlin to publish the study on his personal Web
site.
After repeatedly trying to circulate the comments in early March to the Office
of Air and Radiation, the primary division responsible for drafting the
endangerment proposal, Carlin was told his study would not be included,
according to the emails.
- By Ian Talley, Dow Jones Newswires, 202-862-9285; ian.talley@dowjones.com
On the Web: http://http://www.openmarket.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/
Carlin-Final-Report.pdf
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
06-30-091717ET
Copyright (c) 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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