Democrats press NOAA on hiring climate science skeptic

September 15, 2020

Two top Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee want answers for why NOAA hired a known skeptic of mainstream climate change science to a senior position.

"With the daily realities we face as a country and global community, it is shameful that such a thing as a 'climate denier' still exists and extremely problematic that one be appointed to a prominent position in NOAA," the committee's chairman, Rep. Raúl Grijalva of Arizona, and Rep. Jared Huffman of California, the chairman of the Subcommittee on Water, Oceans and Wildlife, wrote in a letter today.

The "climate denier" in question is David Legates, a former professor of climatology at the University of Delaware. He's now deputy assistant secretary of Commerce for observation and prediction (Climatewire, Sept 14).

Legates has spent his career denying consensus climate science while elevating the work of fringe researchers and industry-funded scientists.

He has claimed that addressing climate change would do more harm than good, and he has said pumping more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere would benefit humanity.

He has also been a familiar presence on Capitol Hill. Last year, he testified before the House Natural Resources Committee, blaming natural variations for the unprecedented level of warming that scientists say is caused by the release of carbon dioxide from human activity.

Last fall, he appeared alongside members of the Congressional Western Caucus for a press conference slamming the Green New Deal (E&E Daily, Feb. 28, 2019).

In 2016, he spoke at the same event where 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin called global warming "bogus" (E&E Daily, April 15, 2016).

"Dr. Legates' appointment is an extreme risk to the American public and an insult to the quality science and scientists at NOAA," Grijalva and Huffman said in their letter addressed to Neil Jacobs, NOAA's acting chief.

Grijalva and Huffman are giving Jacobs until the end of the month to provide information about the circumstances of Legates' hiring, including whether the newly created position to which he was appointed should have been subject to Senate confirmation.


By:  Emma Dumain
Source: E&E News