EPA ISSUANCE OF THE REPORTS STINGS THE BOSS

The Daily Oklahoman (Best Editorial Pages in the Country) ^ | 6 June 2002 | Oklahoman Editorial Staff

[PhiKapMom]

EPA Issuance of Report Stings the Boss

2002-06-06

SOME folks at the Environmental Protection Agency better get their resumes in order. Showing up your boss is never a good idea -- especially when that boss is president of the United States.

That's what happened when a controversial global-warming assessment, apparently based on some very bad science, hit the agency's Web site late last week.

The U.S. Climate Action Report 2002 seemed to reverse the Bush administration's previous global warming stance. It pointed to a clear human role in the accumulation of atmosphere-warming greenhouse gases.

It also embarrassed President Bush.

The president barely concealed his pique over the report. "I read the report by the bureaucracy," Bush told reporters. As we say, get those resumes ready.

The reason is the people at the U.S. Global Change Research Program, who were primarily responsible for the national assessment in the report, apparently based their conclusions on faulty computer models.

University of Virginia climatologist Patrick Michaels said the bureaucrats, as Bush would call them, knew the models were suspect when they issued the report.

"As it stands, it is the blackest of marks upon U.S. environmental science in recent decades," Michaels wrote in a review of the report for the libertarian Cato Institute. "The historic credibility of our considerable efforts in this science ... (is) at stake."

Sallie Baliunas, an astrophysicist at the Harvard- Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said there remains no basis for the claim human activity is causing global warming. "The key layers of air, from one to five miles high, show no human-made global warming," Baliunas told the Washington Times. "Global warming at the surface is largely, if not entirely, natural."

Bush says the administration will stick by its opposition to the Kyoto global warming treaty, which would require crippling restrictions on the U.S. economy. The administration backs voluntary measures that make sense scientifically and economically, not the draconian steps required by Kyoto.

Scientists like Michaels say such measures, even if successful, would barely affect the earth's temperature.

Obviously, some of the hired hands over at EPA disagree and didn't mind breaking with Bush's view. They may be hearing from the big boss pretty soon.

[PhiKapMom]

An opinion article from Bush Country aka Flyover Country

[PhiKapMom]

FYI!

[victim soul]

Thank goodness for freepers in flyover country!!

[Piquaboy]

Due to compassion, they will not lose their job as Bush will not fire them.

[shotabug]

BTT

[Enterprise]

Yeah, well the boss stung back and as we all know, bee poop rolls downhill.

[pabianice]

Could there possibly be a better example of why all Clinton Communist hold-overs must be fired?

[rellimpank]

--they'll probably get the same punishment as those who phoneyed the lynx hair stuff--

[Howlin]

How can that be done? You can't just go in there and FIRE career people. Congress says so.

[deport]

SOME folks at the Environmental Protection Agency better get their resumes in order.

I suspect 'some' is the operative word as I'm sure the civil service bureaucrats will have job protection. But those in appointed positions that should have reviewed this report prior to issuance should be looking I suspect.

I haven't heard Ms Whitman's name come up much yet, but I suspect she has been feeling some heat (or coolness).

[Clara Lou]

Bush will not fire them.... Do you have a crystal ball?

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I'd bet they'll be canned. A step in the right direction.

[rwfok]

University of Virginia climatologist Patrick Michaels said the bureaucrats, as Bush would call them, knew the models were suspect when they issued the report.

"As it stands, it is the blackest of marks upon U.S. environmental science in recent decades," Michaels wrote in a review of the report for the libertarian Cato Institute. "The historic credibility of our considerable efforts in this science ... (is) at stake."

Pat Michael's review of the controversial 2001 U.S. Climate Action Report*

* This is a .pdf file, Adobe Acrobat is required.

[Clara Lou]

I would certainly think he would "can" them. These people (how ever many of them there are) undermined Bush, and deliberately so. He knows he can't have people like that around him. My only question is, "Can these people be fired?"

[hauerf]

I apologize to GW for every scathing remark I've posted in the last few days. Please consider them heaped with additional vitriol and redirected at the EPA pseudo-scientists who perpetrated this bogus announcement. I DO hope some heads roll, but they are civil "servants" after all so I doubt much can be done to them. Hmmm, how about just abolishing the agency. I'd find that quite acceptable.

[MissAmericanPie]

They should be fired, the question is, as government employees can they be fired? I don't think they can, they can be shuffled around to cause more havoc, but not fired.

[Gabz]

"As it stands, it is the blackest of marks upon U.S. environmental science in recent decades," Michaels wrote in a review of the report for the libertarian Cato Institute. "The historic credibility of our considerable efforts in this science ... (is) at stake."

Sorry Mr. Michaels - this isn't the first time - nor will it be the last time the bureaucrats at EPA make up their mind about something and then find a way to prove it.

[Ken H]

Ari Fleischer said at the press briefing yesterday that the EPA report is the official Administration position.

In response to a question, he endorsed the findings. He was quite clear about this.

The Administration's position is that global warming is real and that it is "likely mostly" due to human activity.

Read the transcript of Ari's remarks if you don't believe me.

[SheLion]

Me thinks Christie Todd Whitman wants to be a Bush Lap Dog! Just like she was with Clinton. Why President Bush doesn't dump her arse is beyond me. She is USELESS!!

[Ol' Sparky]

If this was put out against Bush's wishes -- and that is hard to believe given all of the other intentional compromises by this Administration -- then Christie Todd Whitman and any other else responsible for the release of the report MUST be fired. Nothing else is acceptable.