December 15, 2009
The Honorable Jane Lubchenco
Administrator
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
U.S. Department of Commerce
1401 Constitution Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20230
Dear Dr. Lubchenco:
On December 2, you testified before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming during a hearing titled, “The Administration’s View on the State of Climate Science.” My colleagues and I questioned you and Dr. John Holdren about the release of e-mails from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in the United Kingdom.
The e-mails demonstrate a pattern of suppression, manipulation and secrecy among climate scientists that was inspired by ideology, condescension and profit. They betray economic and ideological agendas that are deaf to disconfirming evidence, and reflect scientific fascism more than the scientific process.
Realizing the long reach of US federal funds, I respectfully request an independent investigation by NOAA’s Inspector General of the contents of these e-mails, focusing on the amount of federal money that has been sent to fund any climate change research conducted by scientists employed by the UEA going back to when the CRU was established in 1971. I am interested in determining how much of our taxpayer funds have been spent to support a group of individuals who appear to have forsaken science in the interest of promoting personal agendas and policies, and what frauds were conducted with these funds.
As part of the investigation, I would also like to find out how much of the data collected by NOAA is independent of data provided by CRU. Given the high level of interchangeability between data collected by CRU, NOAA and NASA, I am interested in learning the degree to which the NOAA data might be contaminated by the CRU data.
Please reply with answers to the following questions:
- How much U.S. government money has the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit received to support work on climate change since 1971? Please list the disbursement of these funds by the name of the scientist or professor to whom they were awarded, and include the specific project title and description for which the money was awarded.
- Please provide evidence of the independence of climate data collected by NOAA from that collected by CRU and NASA. In areas where NOAA data is interspersed with CRU and/or NASA data, please identify them, so that your response clearly underscores NOAA data that is independent versus NOAA data that is mixed with data from CRU and NASA.
If you have any questions about this request, feel free to contact Raj Bharwani at the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming at (202) 225-0188.
Sincerely,
F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr.
Ranking Member
House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming
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