A leading climate researcher is planning to sue NASA for withholding information about climate-change data used to establish environmental regulations. Christopher Horner, Senior Fellow with the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), has notified NASA and its Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) that he will sue in late December if that agency does not fulfill Freedom of Information (FOI) requests Horner placed in 2007.

Stephen Dinan of The Washington Times reports the FOI requests deal with repeated changes NASA has made to average temperature readings. Within the past three years, NASA has reported four different years as having the hottest temperatures on record: 1998 was first replaced by 1934, only to be switched again a short time later by a tie between 1998 and 2006. NASA originally recalculated the numbers in response to pressure from Steve McIntyre with ClimateAudit.org, who questioned disparities between official NASA tabulations and raw data reported by individual weather stations.

Dinan reports Horner's prediction that "what is there is highly damaging. These guys are quite clearly bound and determined not to reveal their internal discussions about this." According to Dinan, NASA spokesman Mark Hess says the agency is collecting "responsive, relevant" information to answer Horner's requests. Hess could not explain why NASA has taken so long to provide the records. The FOI Act allows up to 30 days for agencies to respond.

Horner fears the same data tampering has occurred at NASA as that reported to have happened in "ClimateGate," a recent scandal involving hacked e-mails from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia in England. The correspondence suggests researchers illegally concealed data requested through FOI laws in Britain, and CRU Director Phil Jones has temporarily stepped down during an independent investigation into the matter. Penn State University has launched its own inquiry into the ClimateGate role played by one of its professors, Michael Mann. The CRU data, just like NASA's information, is some of the most influential in environmental policy-making decisions on both domestic and international fronts.

In light of ClimateGate, CEI has also filed an emergency petition with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to postpone regulatory provisions in the Clean Air Act until a thorough investigation is complete. The petition takes particular aim at regulations regarding the EPA's "Endangerment Finding" that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health and welfare. CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman explained in a press release the EPA has based many of its regulatory proposals on data made suspect by the CRU e-mails. Kazman pointed out that since the incident was “serious enough to cause the departure of the director of the Climatic Research Unit, then it also justifies EPA's reopening its proceeding." Myron Ebell, CEI Director of Energy and Global Warming Policy, added, "The EPA needs to take another look at the dubious scientific case for global warming alarmism underlying their proposed regulation."

Related articles:

Scientist Steps Down in Climategate Investigation

Climategate: George Monbiot's Lament

Congress Launches Climategate Investigation

IPCC Researchers Admit Global Warming Fraud

Climategate: E-mail Scandal Could Melt Copenhagen Plans

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (5)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

ehmoran said:

... Apparently, specific scientists have elevated themselves to the position of Gods. Having used an influence granted through more than $40-million from the tax payers, they have abused the trust afforded to them placing a dark cloud over the scientific community. Surely, science will recover from this event as time heals all wounds. ‘Truth is the daughter of time’ was forgotten by this Scientific Fiefdom, but acknowledgment of other traditional philosophies which built science to the current respect also have been ignored, such as “Politics, religion, entertainment, fame and wealth have no place in Science”. Often, however, such important socially advancing fields as science need set backs thus forcing current and potential abusers to fall back to traditional thinking. This is the nature in the evolution of human thought and growth. The hubris of denial by these abusers of public trust, along with their followers, of the devastating magnitude of their deceptive and deviant activity, while trying to maintain their stature in society, is incomprehensible. Nevertheless, denial will continue dragging the entire scientific community into the pit. Unfortunately, a self awakened reality of their misdeeds likely will not appear until admission followed by humility becomes outwardly obvious to society. Forgiveness is the divinity of our civilization but forgetting never can be allowed.

report abuse vote down vote up

December 03, 2009
Votes: +3

Carlo said:

	... EISENHOWER'S FAREWELL ADDRESS (17 January 1961) Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.
	report abuse vote down vote up

December 03, 2009
Votes: +3

Dodge said:

Peel open the code - if any code needs open source, climate code appears to be for sure the best candidate. The email climategate scandal has peeled open an insightful view into the strange and criminal world that so called scientists manipulating climate data have inhabited for nearly half of my lifetime. The email tells a sordid tale of corruption and racketeering and alone is d**ning enough. But of the contents that were leaked on the server, 95% of the materials was source code. Source code that can be analyzed and evaluated for discrepencies and oddities. Oh, and the tale the source tells is even worse. It isn't just clear that criminal activity exists, it is without a doubt. No hack programmer that is worth his salt can ignore this outrageous attempt to code their way into the biggest global scam in history. Check out the source, it's on many sites, but this one describes it quite nicely: http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/11/crus_source_code_climategate_r.html That, my friends, is a smoking gun... and is more than enough evidence to put the whole lot of the culprits in any one of a number of nation prisons for quite some time. Now onto the next logical step. Who in the current administration, house of representatives, senate and other federal institutions had a hand in this. Their email needs to be peeled open as well. We need to see the publicly paid for servants email to determine if they were in on this collusion. Any organization that has anything to do with global warming, climate change or environmental studies needs to open up their servers and materials for full evaluation so an audit can be conducted to find out who is responsible for this horrific crime against humanity. Trillions of dollars have been spent, lifetimes of opportunities have been forgone, and continuous harrassment of the general population has been all a part of this farce and needs the individuals responsible need to be held in account for it.

report abuse vote down vote up

December 03, 2009 | url
Votes: +5

Michael Santomauro said:

Cheap Thrills! Attacking those who have claimed collusion amongst climate scientists as 'conspiracy theorists' constitutes an 'ad hominem' attack. It ignores some real evidence of collusion and attempts to paint them as a bunch of nuts in order to hide an unpleasant reality. Psychiatrists have a saying that goes "It ain't paranoia when they're really after you." In this case, it is no longer a conspiracy THEORY once the conspiracy is demonstrated. The recent email release shows leaders in the climate research field engaged in some extraordinarily unprofessional behavior -- including suborning the peer review process, denying access to and threatening destruction of raw data and cooking the analysis to fit preordained conclusions. Such actions, if proven, would end the careers of many scientists. Whatever your views on CO2 and climate, dismissing these acts as 'no big deal' and painting those who call attention to them as 'conspiracy nuts' only strengthens the deniers arguments. --PEACE. Michael Santomauro

report abuse vote down vote up

December 03, 2009 | url
Votes: +4

Flu-Bird said:

	lets include HANSEN As long as this involves NASA lets also make that crack-pot JAMSE HANSEN as a defendent in that lawsuit he is one of those craked urns who has been pushing this who man cuased GLOBAL WARMING idea along with AL GORE
	report abuse vote down vote up

December 03, 2009
Votes: -2