From New GOP Perch, Former Car Alarm Magnate To Raise False Climate Alarm

by Jess Leber · 2010-11-03 14:14:00 UTC
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Let the climate monkey trials begin.

Yesterday morning, from his perch as the top minority member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) was merely President Obama's relatively impotent "annoyer-in-chief."  This morning, with the GOP takeover of the House, he is poised to take over the committee, giving him power to issue subpoenas and set the committee's hearing agenda. In other words, he will now play Lex Luther to Obama's Clark Kent.

What does this mean for climate science?

A whole lot. From his new position, the former car-alarm company owner plans to raise false alarm about climate conspiracy theories. As Nikki Gloudeman wrote, just a few weeks ago Issa vowed to make investigating "Climategate"—the climate pseudo-scandal that's already died 1,000 deaths—a top oversight priority should he win the committee.

Sure, in talking to reporters today he played nice, vowing to equally investigate his own party and touting a few of his saner-sounding investigations (waste and abuse in the U.S. Postal Service, anyone?). But in other comments today, he remarked: "My responsibility is very broad, we own everything." Everything is right, and his ascendancy has political insiders playing guessing games as to who will be his first target. One likely suspect is, of course, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson—a favorite villain of the far right.

The Senate is now packed with climate deniers, as Grist notes, and these politicians will do their best to kill any energy reform bill that should pass their way. But it's the GOP majority in the House that could really muck things up by calling climate scientists to the witness bench and further polluting what little public understanding of global warming remains after the Fox News-driven ClimateGate frenzy earlier this year. And, as Andy Revkin reports on Dot Earth, embattled scientists are conflicted about whether or not to resist appearing at these trials.

Should Issa be investigating legitimate waste and abuse within Obama's massive federal bureaucracy? Sure. He also plans to get his claws into the Obama administration's oil spill response, and I think that's totally legitimate.

What I'm not down with is him further dragging climate science through the political mud, propagating conspiracies that have already been thoroughly debunked, and in irony of all ironies, wasting the taxpayers' money in the process.

Sign this petition to tell Rep. Issa to stop investigating Climategate already, for heaven's sake. Telling him this is now more important than ever.

Photo credit: Sam Howzit via Flickr

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Jess Leber is a Change.org editor. She most recently covered climate and energy issues as a reporter in Washington, D.C

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