Rogue Attorney General Vies For Climate Change Enemy No. 1
Sarah Palin. James Inhofe. John Boehner.
These are the politicians people typically associate with climate change denialism. But while these names carry the most cache, it may very well be Ken Cuccinelli, Attorney General of Virginia, who is most determined to thwart actions to combat global warming. And it's not likely he'll voluntarily give up his one-man crusade anytime soon.
For months, in a move that has outraged the academic and scientific community, Cuccinelli has been waging a witch hunt against University of Virginia climate scientist Michael Mann, whom he claims used taxpayer money to fund "junk science." That the basis for his claims is the thoroughly debunked Climategate fracas and that an independent panel recently exonerated Mann anyway has done nothing to deflate Cuccinelli's version of reality. Last week, Cuccinelli filed a legal document asserting that cries of academic freedom doesn't protect the university from being force to turn over personal e-mails and other documents pertaining to Mann's research.
Meanwhile, Cuccinelli has engaged in a separate, equally damaging battle against U.S. EPA. First, he challenged EPA's decision to declare that carbon dioxide is a pollutant, a high-profile move that 12 other states ultimately backed. In pouring over volumes of scientific research, Cuccinelli apparently discovered that EPA used flawed data in its decision, so clearly he is just trying to right a wrong. Undeterred by a lack of progress with his first tactic, he followed with a lawsuit challenging the EPA's new fuel economy standards, despite that the auto industry itself welcomed the regulations.
On the one hand, Cuccinelli's campaign against climate change isn't all that surprising. This is a man who, after all, wholeheartedly supports Arizona's immigration bill, sued the Obama administration to oppose health care reform and has openly questioned Obama's citizenship.
What is astonishing is just how much he's done to fight any action to combat global warming in such a short period of time. Cuccinelli took office as Attorney General in January of this year, meaning it's taken him six months to aggressively take on climate scientists and the most important environmental agency in the country. With his term set to expire in 2014, one can only imagine what he'll tackle next.
What's more, his actions also reek of abuse of power. There is a big difference between serving in Congress, where you work with others to draft legislation and vote on existing bills, and serving as the principal prosecutor in your state. Filing lawsuits at the level of a state attorney general requires an immense amount of evidence.
Yet Cuccinelli has failed time and time again to adequately justify his actions, relying instead on his unfounded belief that, well, he just can't darn believe that climate change is real. I have no doubt Cuccinelli will continue to challenge important climate change legislation down the road.
Isn't it time someone challenged him? Here is your chance.
Photo credit: kcvaag, Flickr user
Nikki Gloudeman
is a senior fellow at Mother Jones magazine where she writes about the environment and other topics.
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