Category Archives: Congress: Legislation and Oversight

“Federal Disaster Assistance Budgeting: Are We Weather ready?”

The federal government, unlike the private insurance industry, is constrained by federal statutes in its capacity to incorporate climate change preparedness strategies into disaster relief and funding decisions. To date, U.S. domestic disaster relief spending for fiscal year 2011 exceeds … Continue reading

Posted in Congress: Legislation and Oversight | 1 Comment

Annals of the Republican war on EPA regulation of coal, cont'd...

At a July 26 House Oversight subcommittee hearing, power industry representatives battled EPA and public health interests on the necessity for new pollution controls on coal-burning power plants.  The hearing echoed one on mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia held by … Continue reading

Posted in Congress: Legislation and Oversight | 1 Comment

House blocks another attempt to re-establish the Office of Technology Assessment

Climate Science Watch joined 11 other scientific, environmental, transparency, public health, and public interest groups in supporting an amendment to the legislative branch appropriations bill that would have provided $2.5 million to re-establish the congressional Office of Technology Assessment.  The amendment, … Continue reading

Posted in Climate Science Watch, Congress: Legislation and Oversight | 1 Comment

Dangerously Unprepared: Congressional Budget Cuts are Leaving Americans Vulnerable to Climate Extremes

In 2011, the U.S. has been hammered by climate extremes, with economic damages by mid-June approaching a record $32 billion. Yet determined Congressional opponents of federal climate change efforts are doggedly impeding Federal activities to inform and engage the public … Continue reading

Posted in Climate Change Preparedness, Congress: Legislation and Oversight, Global Warming Denial Machine | Leave a comment

EPA review of mountaintop removal permits is not a job-killing 'permitorium': pushing back at a House Oversight hearing

EPA’s statutorily prescribed, affirmative duty under the Clean Water Act to protect the natural environment and the public health of citizens played second fiddle to the concerns of coal mining representatives at a July 14 House Oversight subcommittee hearing. "Mountaintop removal should be … Continue reading

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BP control of Gulf cleanup money interfering with scientific integrity of damage assessment, Senate Environment committee told at hearing

At a Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Water and Wildlife hearing June 28 on "Status of the Deepwater Horizon Natural Resource Damage Assessment," the chairman of the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority said that BP’s corporate control … Continue reading

Posted in Congress: Legislation and Oversight, Science-Policy Interaction | 2 Comments

Study showing higher birth defect rates adds another note of urgency to banning mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia

“The prevalence rate ratio (PRR) for any birth defect was significantly higher in mountaintop mining areas compared to non-mining areas … after controlling for covariates. Rates were significantly higher in mountaintop mining areas for six of seven types of defects…” … Continue reading

Posted in Congress: Legislation and Oversight, Obama Administration | 3 Comments

Letters in support of the NOAA Climate Service that the House Science Committee hasn’t made public

Climate Science Watch has obtained and is posting here a set of letters to the House Science Committee from a wide range of industry, nonprofit, and scientific organizations, as well as from the former NOAA Administrators under the Clinton and … Continue reading

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Proposed NOAA Climate Service attacked and defended at House Science Committee hearing

Following some preliminary skirmishing at the House Science, Space and Technology’s hearing June 22 on the proposal to create a Climate Service at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the real partsian ‘conservative’ objection to the NOAA reorganization was evident: … Continue reading

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5 Democratic congressmen join Republicans in committee vote to kill EPA’s clean water authority

At the Netroots Nation 2011 annual meeting in Minneapolis last week, speakers on the “Progressives vs Polluters: Standing up for the EPA” panel discussed the ongoing right-wing assault on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and debated the problem of how … Continue reading

Posted in Activism, Congress: Legislation and Oversight | 2 Comments