Rep. Miller Calls For Climategate Investigation

Destruction of raw data to avoid Freedom of Information Act requests was “a criminal act,” says Congresswoman

Representative Candice Miller has called for a Congressional investigation into the climategate scandal, saying that the deliberate destruction of data by scientists intimately involved in the UN IPCC in order to avoid FOIA requests was a “criminal act” and blows away the whole foundation for the cap and trade legislation.

Miller made the case that climategate completely undermines the cap and trade legislation passed by Congress earlier this year, which would lead to massive outsourcing of jobs, redistribution of wealth to other countries as well as devastating the economy and states that rely on coal for electricity production, such as Michigan, for whom Miller is a representative.

“If cap and trade were to pass, Michigan’s economy would be devastated, but we were told that it had to happen because the alternative is worse,” said Miller, before discussing climategate, noting that the content of the leaked emails has “blown away the scientific foundation for the man-made global warming theory.”

“These troubling emails show that some of the most respected and quoted and published scientists have used “tricks” to manipulate data, refused to release the data that is the foundation for their research, and they’ve attempted to silence any critics of their hypothesis, and even expressed dismay that they could not explain recent cooling taking place across the globe,” said Miller.

Miller then quoted the most infamous emails including Phil Jones’ “hide the decline” passage and Kevin Trenberth’s email, where he states, “The fact is that we can’t account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can’t.” Trenberth was a lead author of the 1995, 2001, and 2007 IPCC Scientific Assessment of Climate Change.

“An inconvenient truth that temperatures were declining required a “trick” to hide it,” noted Miller.

Speaking on the subject of how the emails expose how warmist scientists engaged in academic witch hunts to prevent studies they disagreed with from appearing in peer-reviewed journals, Miller summarized;

“Call those who disagree with their hypothesis “cranks” because they have not been published in peer-reviewed journals and then when they are – to discredit the journal – in other words Mr. Speaker – the fix is in.”

Miller then highlighted the deliberate destruction of raw climate data on behalf of the CRU scientists and their colleagues.

“The leader of the CRU for years refused to release source data and now they claim that the data was lost – you know it sounds to me like the old elementary excuse – ‘the dog ate my homework’ – that excuse didn’t work for 3rd graders and it’s certainly unacceptable for scientists who are asking us to totally upend our economy,” said Miller.

Speaking on the subject of data that was deliberately destroyed in order to avoid Freedom of Information Act requests, Miller stated, “that is not just bad science, that is a criminal act.”

“Congress needs to hold hearings to this matter, we need to investigate these very troubling revelations – if we are to make policy that will profoundly impact our nation, that policy must be made on facts, not on articles of faith or manipulated data,” concluded Miller.

Watch the video of Miller’s speech below, followed by Senator Inhofe’s comments on climategate made yesterday.