Posted on 12/22/2016 8:02:58 AM PST by AndyJackson
The administration fired an employee for telling the truth to Congress, GOP lawmakers charged Tuesday, saying political appointees at the Energy Department were upset the woman backed a radiation program popular on Capitol Hill but which the department had planned to ax.
Energy officials had hoped to cannibalize the money to fund global warming research...
Dr. Metting was fired soon after the Oct. 16, 2014, briefing she delivered, and the House Science Committee says it has obtained documents showing the administration was upset at her for straying from pre-approved talking points.
Energy Department spokesman Eben Burnham-Snyder said a questionnaire from the Trump transition team “left many in our workforce unsettled.”...“We will be forthcoming with all publicly-available information with the transition team. We will not be providing any individual names to the transition team.”
(Excerpt) Read more at m.washingtontimes.com ...
Committee Releases Report on Department of Energy Misconduct
Dec 20, 2016 Press Release
WASHINGTON – The Majority Staff of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology today released a report, U.S. Department of Energy Misconduct Related to the Low Dose Radiation Research Program. The report includes findings from the majority staff’s investigation that senior Department of Energy officials deliberately withheld information from Congress and removed an agency scientist from federal service for providing complete answers to committee staff. The report also covers an overview of the Low Dose Radiation Research Program and H.R. 5544, the Low Dose Radiation Research Act of 2014.
Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas): “Instead of providing the type of scientific information needed by Congress to legislate effectively, senior departmental officials sought to hide information, lobbied against legislation, and retaliated against a scientist for being forthcoming. In this staff report based on lengthy record before the committee, much has been revealed about how senior level agency officials under the Obama administration retaliated against a scientist who did not follow the party line. Moving forward, the department needs to overhaul its management practices to ensure that Congress is provided the information it requires to legislate and that federal employees and scientists who provide that information do so without fear of retribution.”
Background:
Findings from the Report:
DOE management developed a scheme to withhold information from congressional staff.
Dr. Noelle Metting was directed to omit information from a presentation to congressional staff given during the briefing.
DOE management avoided critical information pertinent to the continuance of the LDRRP.
DOE management worked to kill the LDRRP because it did not further the administration’s goals to advance climate research.
With regard to H.R. 5544, DOE management sought to manipulate congressional staff – both republican and democratic staff.
DOE management and senior employees gave intentionally misleading statements to Congress.
Dr. Julie Carruthers and Dr. Sharlene Weatherwax both made inconsistent statements at different points during the Committee’s investigation.
Management quickly took steps to remove Dr. Metting from federal service.
Dr. Metting was removed for providing Congress with candid testimony without regard to the potential chilling effect on other scientists.
Dr. Metting was the DOE’s sole expert on LDRR and her opinion was silenced to further political interests.
Conclusions and Recommendations in the Report:
The DOE exhibited a complete disregard for the legislative process and Constitutional separation of powers at an institutional level.
The DOE must overhaul its management practices to ensure that the Department carries out its Constitutional responsibilities to be truthful with Congress and respects the legislative process.
To view the full report, click here .
114th Congress
“Energy Department spokesman Eben Burnham-Snyder said a questionnaire from the Trump transition team “left many in our workforce unsettled.”...“We will be forthcoming with all publicly-available information with the transition team. ”WE WILL NOT BE PROVIDING ANY INDIVIDUAL NAMES TO THE (TRUMP)TRANSITION TEAM.”
After 8 years EVERYONE in almost EVERY Department/Agency needs to be CLEANED OUT. If they are not “insiders say”/”Leaks from within the Department report” will hinder Trump at every step.
DRAIN THE SWAMP is a necessity and not a slogan.
No names? Too bad, that means everyone needs to go. Insubordination.
Maybe some good ones can be vetted and re-hired.
Fire them all.
This is the legacy of those two great scientific leaders, Secretaries Chu and Moniz - firing a good scientist for telling the truth on something that matters not a wit to their political agendae.
As biologists learn more about the ability of a cell to repair DNA breaks and errors, the more likely it seems that low doses of radiation are much safer than is presumed from what are called "linear" or cumulative exposure hypotheses. Regardless of personal views, a good scientist would want to accumulate data to demonstrate one or the other of these models, or perhaps develop a better third model. Nope these meddling, mediocre, midlevel political operatives just want to enforce their green-energy dogma.
But there have been no scandals during the Obama administration. The media told me so.
Anyway, this is about the lack of scientific integrity in Obama's department of Energy, suppressing good science and firing people in an effort to divert even more resources to so-called green energy research.
Good start!!
Take away the so called telework program that gives them 4 day weekends and rewrite Energy’s mission statement and to top it off a total Reorganization shuffle the whole deck and s lot of them will retire or seek other employment
Cause a perpetual state of uncertainty in all the Rouge Depth.
Going to page 6 of your document, one finds out the real reason they were so upset. Dr. Metting’s research, which indicated that low dosages of radiation were not as harmful as the current thought indicates, was opposed by the EPA. The EPA didn’t like the idea that it would undermine their position that the only safe level of radiation is zero.
Dr Metting was removed because her research endangered some of the EPA’s power.
As they state, however, their real issue was that they wanted her research funds to spend on biofuels. Now I don't for the life of me understand how biofuels are "green" given the amount of petroleum products that go into running tractors, processing factories and producing fertilizer, but it's a religion, not a science or technology
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