Rep. Lamar Smith: NOAA Alters Climate Change Data to Get PC Results

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is stiff-arming Texas Republican Rep. Lamar Smith's demand for information from a controversial study on climate change.

Citing confidentiality and the integrity of the scientific process, NOAA has decided not to turn over internal communications demanded in a subpoena from Smith's House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, the journal Nature reports. 

According to Nature, the study, published last June, analyzed NOAA's temperature records and found that global warming has continued at a steady pace — contradicting previous findings suggesting warming has slowed since the 1990s.

Smith, a critic of climate change, asked NOAA in July for the data used in the study and for any internal communications related to it, but NOAA has only given his committee publicly available data, Nature reports.

In an angry statement, Smith accuses NOAA's work of being political, The Hill reports. 

"It was inconvenient for this administration that climate data has clearly showed no warming for the past two decades," he said in a statement. "The American people have every right to be suspicious when NOAA alters data to get the politically correct results they want and then refuses to reveal how those decisions were made."

But NOAA spokeswoman Ciaran Clayton tells The Hill the internal deliberations are confidential and not related to what Smith is trying to find out.

"We have provided data, all of which is publicly available online, supporting scientific research, and multiple in-person briefings," she tells the outlet.

"We stand behind our scientists who conduct their work in an objective manner. It is the end product of exchanges between scientists — the detailed publication of scientific work and the data that underpins the authors' findings — that are key to understanding the conclusions reached."

Smith is unconvinced, telling The Hill the agency's confidentially claim is baseless.

"The agency has yet to identify any legal basis for withholding these documents," he says in the statement, declaring his panel will continue to push for the data.

Smith's legal action has riled Democrats on the committee, including Texas Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, who's accused the chairman of engaging in "a fishing expedition" and "a serious misuse of Congressional oversight powers." 

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