Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 10.1: Barton's Apology
Washington Post
satire of Joe Barton's apology to BP for the Obama administration's plan to hold the corporation responsible for its
actions. [Washington Post, June 22, 2010. TOLES © 2010 The Washington Post. Reprinted with permission of UNIVERSAL UCLICK.
All rights reserved.]
On June 24, 2005, five years before that infamous apology, I received an intimidating letter from
Joe Barton (also signed by Representative Ed Whitfield of Kentucky, Republican chair of the
subcommittee on House investigations). Similar letters were sent to my colleagues Ray Bradley and
Malcolm Hughes, to the IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachuari (a citizen of India), and to National
Science Foundation director Arden Bement. It was the Serengeti strategy in action several times over.
Seizing upon the criticism of our research in the
Wall Street Journal
as justification for an open-
ended investigation of us and our work, Barton's letter to me opened, “Questions have been raised,
according to a February 14, 2005 article in
The Wall Street Journal
, about the significance of
methodological flaws and data errors in your studies of the historical record of temperatures and
climate change.” The letter repeated discredited criticisms of our work and the straw-man argument
that our hockey stick papers constituted a central pillar of the IPCC and the scientific case for human-
caused climate change.
Barton's wording was carefully crafted to make it appear to us (and perhaps others) that he had
the power to subpoena extensive materials: “In light of the Committee's jurisdiction over energy
policy and certain environmental issues, the Committee must have full and accurate information when
considering matters relating to climate change policy…. To assist us as we begin this review, and
pursuant to Rules X and XI of the U.S. House of Representatives, please provide the following
information requested below on or before July 11, 2005.”
In fact, Barton had no such subpoena power—that could only be granted by a full vote of the
