California Senator Barbara Boxer, the new chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held hearings earlier this week on climate change and global warming.
Despite repeated claims from the White House to the contrary, many testified at the hearing that the Administration has pressured scientists and government agencies to suppress, alter, or otherwise downplay their findings of the effects, or even the existence, of global warming.
Readers may wish to believe the assertions of the administration that it has done no such thing, this writer is skeptical.
With the new Congress comes new leadership, and the pressure that is now being applied to the White House to get on board with the rest of the world, or at least to let scientists freely report their findings, can only be a good thing for us all.
Another encouraging bit of news from Congress is the introduction of The Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act calling for a freeze in greenhouse gas emissions by 2010, then gradually decreasing emissions each year toward a target of an 83% reduction in current levels by the year 2050.
Now that’s the kind of bold leadership we need