We’ve seen, on too many occasions, that the Bush administration will gladly reject, edit, or delete scientific evidence if it conflicts with the president’s agenda. Alas, the same problem exists on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue too.
We learned last month, for example, that Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee used not-so-subtle pressure to intimidate the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the National Science Foundation, and independent scientists who dared to publish accurate data showing a sharp spike in global temperatures during the twentieth century and especially the 1990s.
My friend Ed Stephan alerted me yesterday to another report highlighting a similar problem in the Senate.
[Dr. Gordon Orians, professor emeritus of zoology at the University of Washington] was the chairman of an elite panel, sponsored by the National Academy of Science’s National Research Council, that studied 30 years of energy development in Alaska. Its detailed 2003 report summed up effects ranging from altered animal habitat to both positive and negative social change.
[Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska)], who asked for the report, went into a rage when he received it.
“To hear them talk, you would think it would be in the best interest of the country to turn the clock back and put the Eskimos back in igloos,” thundered Alaska’s senator-for-life.
As a prime controller of Congress’ purse strings, Stevens crudely put the arm on the National Academy of Sciences.
“He was threatening the academy,” Orians said. “He threatened to send out subpoenas.”
As the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s Joel Connelly noted, Stevens, ironically, was one of those lawmakers who used to say that Alaskan development should be based on “sound science,” not emotionalism. Now, of course, we know that for too many Republicans, “sound science” means “science that tells me exactly what I want to hear.”
What’s even worse is this habit of casually abusing government power, which has become the norm in the GOP Congress. I know Stevens has had some corruption troubles recently, but for a high-ranking Republican senator to threaten the National Academy of Sciences for producing an accurate report that he requested is insane.