Dems have a plan to fight Trump on climate censorship – Michigan Advance

WASHINGTON A freshman congressman, troubled by allegations of climate censorship by the President Trump administration, is attempting to make it harder for political appointees to scrub scientific information from government reports.

U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) introduced legislation this month dubbed the Stop Climate Censorship Act. If enacted, it would require political appointees at federal agencies to provide data to back up any decisions to remove climate change content from scientific studies or press releases.

Theres any number of examples of controversies surrounding climate censorship under the Trump administration, Neguse said. He pointed to one of the highest-profile examples in his own congressional district.

Maria Caffrey, a former University of Colorado research assistant and a paid partner of the National Park Service, said her research on how climate change would impact national parks was sidelined by Trump administration officials.

Shetestifiedat a hearing before the U.S. House earlier this year that National Park Service officials made explicit attempts to get me to remove references to anthropogenic or human-caused climate change from my report.

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Agency management gradually cut off her access to research funding, Caffrey testified: I had become an outcast for standing up.

In July, U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Rochester Hills) led a hearing of the U.S. House Science Subcommittee on Research & Technology looking into scientistic research being stifled by the Trump administration. The Flint water crisis, PFAS contamination and climate change were key issues raised.

This is not a Democratic or Republican issue, Stevens said during the hearing. Its not about one administration or another. It is about ensuring public trust in the conduct dissemination and use of scientific research in the federal government.

The hearing featured several experts, including Joel Clement, Arctic Initiative senior fellow for the Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Clement was a top U.S. Interior Department adviser who said he was reassigned by then-Director Ryan Zinke in a purge after raising climate change concerns. He became a whistleblower against the Trump administrations anti-science and pro-fossil fuels agenda.

Another controversy surrounding scientific censorship occurred earlier this year when officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrationreportedlybacked President Donald Trump over the agencys own researchers.

After Trump asserted without evidence that Alabama would most likely be hit much harder than anticipated by the approaching Hurricane Dorian, National Weather Service staff was told to only stick with official National Hurricane Center forecasts if questions arose about Trumps assertions and to refrain from providing any opinions, the Washington Post reported.

Trump famouslyuseda black Sharpie marker to add an extra loop onto a map of Dorians predicted path to encompass Alabama.

In light of recent attempts by this administration to censor science, includingthreatsin September to fire NOAA officials who failed to back President Trumps inaccurate statements on Hurricane Dorian, legislation to prevent the political interference of federal science is critically needed, Neguse said in a statement.

A January 2018 reportby the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative, which analyzed websites across the federal government, found substantial shifts under the Trump administration in whether and how the topic of climate change and efforts to mitigate and adapt to its consequences are discussed across a range of federal agencies websites.

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The report also found a significant loss of public access to information about climate change.

Taking action to curb the impacts of climate change is critical for Colorado, Neguse said.

Afact sheet published by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the former President Obama administration in August 2016 and archived online outlines some of the ways that climate change caused by humans will impact Colorado.

The expected consequences include more common heat waves, decreased water availability and agricultural yields, and increased risk of wildfires.

Neguse introduced the bill with two of his Democratic colleagues, U.S. Reps. Suzanne Bonamici of Oregon and Sean Casten of Illinois.

The congressman said hes optimistic that itll get a vote in the U.S. House Science, Space and Technology Committee, where Bonamici is a senior member. Neguse is also hoping to include the legislation in a package of bills that will be considered by the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis. Neguse, a member of that committee, has made climate change one of his key focuses. He was a strong and early supporter of the Green New Deal.

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Along with U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Dearborn), he traveled to Spain this month for the U.N. Climate Change Summit as part of a delegation led by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

He said hes optimistic that companion legislation will be introduced in the Senate, but recognizes that the bill is unlikely to see movement in that chamber.

Neguse acknowledged the realities of the Senate under its current GOP leadership and the fact that many bills continue to languish under U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

That scenario makes the road much more difficult in the upper chamber, but were going to continue to push, Neguse said.

To become law, the legislation would also need to win Trumps signature or win enough votes to override a White House veto both of those scenarios are highly unlikely.

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Max Boykoff, director of the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research and an associate professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, welcomed Neguses legislation.

Irrespective of anyones political party affiliation, this is important legislation for those seeking improved accountability among political appointees and ongoing access to important information about climate change for decision-making, Boykoff said in a statement.

In order to implement bold policies to tackle climate change, Bonamici said, those policies must be informed by the best available science. At a time when the Trump Administration regularly dismisses and denies climate science, it is our responsibility to protect the work of federal science agencies and to make sure that scientists are heard and supported rather than censored.

Advance Editor Susan J. Demas contributed to this story.

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Dems have a plan to fight Trump on climate censorship - Michigan Advance