WASHINGTON -- Congress continued to probe allegations Wednesday that the Bush administration tried to muzzle government scientists on climate change and suppress scientific research, including a comprehensive report in 2000 on global warming's impact on the United States.
During a Senate Commerce Committee hearing, both Democratic and Republican lawmakers weighed in with harsh words for an administration that has come under fire in the 110th Congress for its stance on climate change.
"One incidence of political tampering with science is too many," said Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), the committee chairman, referring to a survey released last week by two advocacy groups that showed widespread political interference in research related to global warming.
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At the hearing, several witnesses testified that they had experienced or seen political interference by the Bush administration in climate-change science. Witnesses said press officers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other agencies had manipulated or obstructed media interviews with government scientists. Witnesses also said that important research on global warming had been downplayed, edited or suppressed by a system of "minders" and "gatekeepers."
Rick Piltz, the director of the climate science watch program at watchdog group the Government Accountability Project, said the Bush administration effectively quashed official use of the 2000 National Assessment report on global warming in the United States.
According to Piltz, who worked for White House climate-change programs from 1995 to 2005, the report remains "the most comprehensive, scientifically based assessment of the potential consequences of climate change for the United States." In his written statement, he called the suppression of the report "the central climate science scandal of the (Bush) administration."
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