Washington, D.C. An investigative report by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and the Government Accountability Project (GAP) has uncovered new evidence of widespread political interference in federal climate science. The report, which includes a survey of hundreds of federal scientists at seven federal agencies and dozens of in-depth interviews, documents a high regard for climate change research but broad interference in communicating scientific results. The report is available on GAP’s Web site at http://www.whistleblower.org.
The report will be detailed today in a 10 a.m. hearing by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Rick Piltz, director of Climate Science Watch, a GAP program that holds public officials accountable for how they use climate science, will testify. In June 2005 news reports, documents that Piltz obtained showed that a White House official with no scientific training was editing climate change science program reports in an attempt to confuse and obscure the perceived human impact on global warming.