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Rep. Barton: Obama Should Be Worried About "Carbongate"
Yesterday we wrote about Environmental Protection Agency economist Al Carlin, the author of a report that casts doubt on climate change. Carlin's study wasn't taken as seriously by the agency as he'd been hoping -- perhaps because he's not a scientist, and because his bosses never asked him to produce it.
But his cause has become a favorite of right-wingers, who suddenly believe science to be sacred, and are charging that the Obama administration is "suppressing" a report whose conclusions it dislikes. The anti-regulatory Competitive Enterprise Institute first publicized Carlin's report last week. Since then, Carlin has discussed his "findings" with Glenn Beck on Fox News, and on Monday, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) called for a criminal investigation into the issue.
Now, Rep. Joe Barton is taking the outrage to a new level. This morning on America's Newsroom, the industry-friendly Texas Republican accused the EPA of suppressing the report, and declared that "just as Nixon had Watergate, Obama now has Carbongate to deal with."
Watch:
(Note that Barton called Carlin "a scientist at the EPA." In fact, Carlin has worked for the agency since months after its founding in 1971, but he does not hold an advanced degree in any natural science, and he has always worked as an economist.)
So just to compare: Watergate involved the cover-up of a criminal enterprise directed from the Oval Office. "Carbongate" involves the EPA ignoring a scientific study by a non-scientist that it never commissioned and which hasn't been published in any scientific journal. There may be better comparisons.
Josh
Zachary
Just a minor nitpick: Carlin's study may be about science, but from all the descriptions of it, calling it a "scientific study" is like calling the Creation Science Institute as scientific research organization.
July 2, 2009 12:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
I was on this issue last weekend, noting not only his lack of credentials, but his attempts to make everything susceptible to cost-benefit analysis, which only looks at short-term costs, of course, but also noting the extremely risky solution he proposed if, in his mind, global warming ever did turn out to be real.
July 3, 2009 11:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, the Walpin dust-up seems to have crumbled, so the GOOPers have to move onto something...
July 2, 2009 1:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is such an obvious faux outrage story that I think the dems should have a hearing on it, and just crucify the guy and his conclusions. And put him under oath.
"Did anyone ask you for this?" "What qualifications do you have in climate science?" "Did any former Bush administration official or appointee suggest any course of action at any time with the document that you produced?"
You get my drift.
July 2, 2009 1:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Can you mention a science journal that routinely publishes papers from a single author who only have an undergraduate degree in that field? If not, then how does your article with your credentials rise to the level that's considered accepted as science?
July 2, 2009 9:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
He sounds psychotic.
July 2, 2009 1:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
It seems to me that at some point the manufactured-outrage-ridiculous-exaggeration-rending-of-garments machine has got to run of gas for these guys. Regardless of how much money the oil/gas/coal companies throw at them, the reality will overwhelm the farce, and eventually it won't be worth it anymore to pay monkeys like Barton to keep dancing, screeching, and clapping their cymbals.
July 2, 2009 1:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
These guys will never run out of gas. They have the oil industry on their side. Joe Barton especially:
American Electric Power, Valero Energy, Koch Industries, Exxon Mobil, and others are among his top campaign contributors.
July 2, 2009 1:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
In the short term, yes. But the economics of a fossil-fuel based economy don't work in the long run, and the weak action that we are seeing on climate change legislation in the U.S. will only move us more quickly toward the day when energy companies have to deal with the realities of the situation, and global warming denialists (whether true believers, or just mercenaries) will just be relics of the past.
July 2, 2009 5:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
The faux outrage will run out of gas when the media stops treating it without skepticism. It's a media play, and it works well on that level.
What will it require for the media generally to stop treating the games as real news?
July 3, 2009 1:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
LOL...Josh just described Barton as "Not the sharpest tool in the shed". Which is absolutely spot on!!! But Barton still is a tool, which of course rhymes with fool...lol!!!
July 2, 2009 1:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
And it also rhymes with stool! Which means POOP!
LOL
July 2, 2009 6:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Joe Barton is the guy the Texas Republicans chose to replace Phil Gramm when Gramm left his Congressional seat to run for Senate. Joe has always been dumb as a post, but he had powerful backers who pushed him.
July 3, 2009 1:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
Note to Republicans: America is still f*cked thanks to you. Stop trying to convince us that it wasn't your fault with your retarded pseudo-arguments (no offense to mentally handicapped people everywhere). Your feeble neocon quasi-logic only works on the terminally dumb and the chronically irresponsible, i.e. the people who were already firmly in your camp to begin with.
P.S. to Rep. Barton: Dr. Chu is a Nobel Laureate. You, sir, are an idiot (no offense).
July 2, 2009 2:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
To say that Rep. Barton (R-Idiot) has sh*t for brains would be unfair to sh*t...
July 2, 2009 2:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
What a tool. Who would elect such a doofus?
Wait... Oh yeah, my rep is Michelle Bachmann.
Never mind.
July 2, 2009 3:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Doesn't the Congress have any epxectation of honsesty? Fine, some one can choose to agree with Carlin, but that does not make him a scientist.
July 2, 2009 3:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yesterday, my father hung up on me after bellowing that scientists have now proven that it's really global COOLING going on, and that Congress is part of the Great Climate Conspiracy to establish Soviet communism.
Is this what he meant? He listens to Glenn Beck and his ilk.
July 2, 2009 6:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
So....Obama "manipulates good Science" (aka EXXON approved Science), and Republicans want an investigation! Oh, that's good, even for the party that hates Science!
It's caught the eye of the good people at Realclimate:
http://www.realclimate.org/
July 3, 2009 5:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Scientist or not, the "report" that he wrote was trash. It had nothing in it that reflected reality and was laughed out of court.
July 2, 2009 8:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's very telling that Joe Barton is more concerned with Obama's political standing than with anything relating to good governance. Even if I didn't know anything about this crappy Carlin memo, I'd have good reason to suspect that Barton is full of shit on just this basis alone.
July 4, 2009 6:59 PM | Reply | Permalink