news.sciencemag.org

Representative Ralph Hall (R-TX) has staked his claim to the chairmanship of the House Science and Technology Committee with this statement on the election and his plans for next year:

Texastan Republican Ralph Hall (who is, I believe, the senior rep from TX), made this statement today:

HALL STATEMENT ON ELECTION RESULTS AND THE 112TH CONGRESS

“Nationally, I am heartened that Americans returned Republicans to the majority in hopes of providing a check on runaway spending in Washington and getting the economy back on track toward growth and job creation. I look forward to working with current members on the Science and Technology Committee, as well as hearing from our new members, to formulate and advance an agenda that keeps our nation moving forward. The Science and Technology Committee will be a place where every member’s ideas will be respected and considered, and all Republicans can play a role in crafting good science policy.

“We must also conduct strong oversight over this Administration in key areas including climate change, scientific integrity, energy research and development (R&D), cybersecurity, and science education. Over the past few years the unprecedented growth of the Federal government and the creation of multiple new and duplicative programs occurred without having first assessed the effectiveness and success of existing programs.

“My goal is to ensure science policy drives innovation and thereby the American economy. Federal investment in R&D must empower the free market, not interfere in it.”

So it looks like he is going to carry out Issa’s request for the great inquisition of climatology. Hall is noted for being part of the group with Sensenbrenner and old Joe Barton for leading the cause against dealing with these types of environmental issues.

According to SourceWatch:

Ralph Hall has received $78,199 in oil contributions during the 110th congress. $53,999 of those dollars were from industry PACS. In total, Hall has accepted $307,930 from oil companies between 2000 and 2008, which makes him one of the largest recipients of oil money.

Issa (a Republican from San Diego county) has said repeatedly he wants to investigate “Climategate” and Prof. Mann.

With Hall willing to do Issa’s bidding, and with Barton and Sensenbrenner to back up Hall, I doubt that Boehner or Cantor will be willing or able to stop this fiasco.

Just so you realize that Hall doesn’t really mean “integrity”, consider the following:

Here is a speech that Hall wrote in December of 2009:

Mr. HALL of Texas. Mr. Speaker, in the last few weeks there has been some very disturbing correspondence that’s surfaced and presents a real dilemma for the scientific community and an even greater dilemma for this Congress as the United Nations Climate Change Conference begins in Copenhagen.

As ranking member of the Science Committee, I’m concerned about these revelations dubbed by the press as “Climate-gate” and their implication for the scientific community, Congress, and the American people. Allegations of manipulation of scientific data would be troublesome under any circumstance. The fact that the scientific data in question here is to be used as the basis for global agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions or changes to the regulatory regime of the United States makes these allegations that much more disturbing.

[…]

Considering the loss of confidence in the scientific process, it’s even more troubling that policymakers are pushing forward with a scheme that could irrevocably alter our economy and our prosperity.

In the past few weeks, through the disclosure of more than a thousand emails, there is extensive evidence that many researchers across the globe discussed the destruction, alteration, and suppression of data that did not support global warming claims. These exchanges include a leading climate scientist encouraging other scientists to alter data that is the basis of climate modeling across the globe by using the “trick of adding in the real temps to each series ….. to hide the decline [in temperature].”

[More “concern” about science]

Even more troubling is that these exchanges describe attempts to silence academic journals that publish research skeptical of significant manmade global warming and refer to efforts to exclude contrary views from publication in the scientific journals. Some scientists even encouraged the deletion of data and emails to avoid disclosure in the event of a Freedom of Information request.

All of this presents a troubling pattern of attempts not only to misrepresent the data on global warming to meet expectations contained in the theories, but also to silence any dissenters and cover up inappropriate data manipulation.

[and so on …]

That’s just about cut and paste from any denier astroturf website/newsletter out there, with all the attending idiocies. Indeed, I wonder who wrote that speech. Hall is intending to do the work of those who pay him.