Fearing for Science

With the Republicans taking control of the House of Representatives in the 112th Congress, let me introduce you to the new chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee, Rep. Ralph Hall (R-TX). The congressman is a good ol’boy steeped in the beltway for 30 years and will be protecting NASA’s space budget with steely determination — you know ’cause its a Texas thang.

The talk out in the blogs is about Hall’s SCTV-like comment to the Dallas Morning News about the Deep Horizon spill:

“As we saw that thing bubbling out, blossoming out – all that energy, every minute of every hour of every day of every week – that was tremendous to me. That we could deliver that kind of energy out there – even on an explosion.”

Blowed up real good.

But what Hall doesn’t like is all this talk about climate warming.

With the House GOP full of climate-change skeptics, Hall’s committee is likely to investigate the scientific studies that say man-made activities are to blame for global warming. Environmental groups say that debate is settled. Nonetheless, Hall said he plans to appoint an aggressive legislator, Rep. James Sensenbrenner, to chair the subcommittee that investigates scientific activities.

Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., can be expected to hold hearings that question “uncertainties” in climate-change science that impact public policy, said John Mimikakis, a former deputy chief of staff for the science committee. Sensenbrenner recently referred to the scientific consensus on global warming as a “massive international scientific fraud.”

Grrr.