{"id":3682,"date":"2015-10-14T07:13:34","date_gmt":"2015-10-14T12:13:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/?p=3682"},"modified":"2015-11-03T13:58:19","modified_gmt":"2015-11-03T18:58:19","slug":"climate-scientist-threatened-with-investigation-by-congress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2015\/10\/14\/climate-scientist-threatened-with-investigation-by-congress\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate Scientist Threatened with Investigation by Member of Congress for Purported \u201cPartisan Political Activity\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

A climate scientist who was the lead signatory on a letter to President Obama, supporting a proposed RICO investigation of some corporate opponents to action on climate change, has himself been threatened with a Congressional investigation by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX).\u00a0 Rep. Smith \u2013 chair of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology \u2013 claims that by sending the letter, scientist Dr. Jagadish Shukla engaged in inappropriate \u201cpartisan political activity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Shukla was one of twenty scientists who wrote a letter to President Obama, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and White House science advisor John Holdren last month. \u00a0The letter endorsed a call by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) for an investigation under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) of \u201ccorporations and other organizations that have knowingly deceived the American people about the risks of climate change, as a means to forestall America\u2019s response to climate change.\u201d \u00a0(In May, Sen. Whitehouse wrote a Washington Post<\/em> op-ed calling for a civil investigation of the fossil fuel industry and its \u201ccampaign to mislead the American people,\u201d which would determine if a civil RICO prosecution was warranted,[1]<\/a> and the support for an initial investigation of fossil fuel corporations was echoed in the scientists\u2019 letter.) \u00a0Holdren responded that while legal matters are up to the Justice Department, \u201cthe Administration shares the concern expressed in the letter about the seriousness of the threat posed by climate change.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

Not everyone reacted supportively.\u00a0 Dr. Shukla and other signatories have been recipients of hate mail, invasive open records requests, as well as an online smear campaign.\u00a0 But as lead signatory, Dr. Shukla has experienced the worst of it, including now being targeted by Rep. Smith.<\/p>\n

Rep. Smith has criticized the idea of man-made climate change, and once suggested that climate scientists colluded \u201cto hide contradictory temperature data.\u201d[3]<\/a>\u00a0 More recently, he characterized an official national climate report requested by Congress and produced by university scientists, federal agencies and private sector researchers, as a \u201cpolitical document.\u201d[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

Dr. Shukla is a professor at George Mason University (GMU), and heads the independent Institute of Global Environment and Society (IGES).\u00a0 Dr. Shukla has authored or co-authored nearly 250 scientific papers[5]<\/a> and was a lead author on the 2007 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore later that year.[6]<\/a><\/p>\n

A copy of the RICO letter was briefly available on the IGES website, although it did not otherwise mention IGES. \u00a0Rep. Smith concluded that the letter was associated with IGES, and wrote in an October 1 letter to Dr. Shukla that this \u201craises serious concerns\u201d warranting an investigation, because IGES receives government funding and the letter constituted \u201cpartisan political activity.\u201d\u00a0 Rep. Smith directed Dr. Shukla to preserve \u201call e-mail, electronic documents, and data\u201d since January 2009 that \u201ccan be reasonably anticipated to be subject to a request for production by the committee\u201d during an investigation.[7]<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI signed this letter as a private citizen on personal time, urging action on climate change, and I have been shocked by the reaction,\u201d Dr. Shukla told InsideClimate News<\/em>.\u00a0 \u201cAny allegations of inappropriate behavior are untrue.\u201d[8]<\/a> \u00a0He also told ScienceInsider<\/em> that he and other signatories could \u201cnot believe the viciousness of attacks because we signed a letter as our civic duty with the ultimate goal of repairing our planet.\u201d[9]<\/a><\/p>\n

Michael Halpern, a program manager at the Union of Concerned Scientists, commented that the \u201cHouse Science Committee isn\u2019t going after Dr. Shukla and his colleagues for their scientific work, but for their opinions as private citizens.\u201d[10]<\/a>\u00a0 The ranking minority member on the House Science committee, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), suggested this could be seen as an \u201cattempt to stifle the constitutionally protected right of any citizen, including the nation\u2019s scientists, to engage in free speech without interference.\u201d[11]<\/a><\/p>\n

Lauren Kurtz is the Executive Director of the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund, which seeks to protect the scientific endeavor, and which has provided Dr. Shukla with legal assistance to help him respond to Rep. Lamar Smith\u2019s inquiry. \u00a0A modified\u00a0version of this post appeared <\/em>here<\/em><\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/the-fossil-fuel-industrys-campaign-to-mislead-the-american-people\/2015\/05\/29\/04a2c448-0574-11e5-8bda-c7b4e9a8f7ac_story.html<\/a><\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> https:\/\/news.sciencemag.org\/policy\/2015\/10\/turnabout-house-republicans-say-they-ll-investigate-climate-scientist-requesting<\/a><\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> https:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/climate\/2012\/11\/28\/1248751\/rep-lamar-smith-who-criticized-the-idea-of-human-made-global-warming-set-to-be-chair-of-house-science-panel\/<\/a><\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/citations?user=_3yxqgkAAAAJ&hl=en<\/a><\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> https:\/\/www.iges.org\/people\/images\/IPCCcertificate.jpg<\/a><\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> https:\/\/science.house.gov\/sites\/republicans.science.house.gov\/files\/documents\/10-1-15%20CLS%20to%20Shukla.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> https:\/\/insideclimatenews.org\/news\/07102015\/climate-scientist-shukla-backlash-RICO-investigation-fossil-fuel-companies-lamar-smith-congress<\/a><\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> https:\/\/news.sciencemag.org\/policy\/2015\/10\/turnabout-house-republicans-say-they-ll-investigate-climate-scientist-requesting<\/a><\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> https:\/\/insideclimatenews.org\/news\/07102015\/climate-scientist-shukla-backlash-RICO-investigation-fossil-fuel-companies-lamar-smith-congress<\/a><\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> https:\/\/news.sciencemag.org\/policy\/2015\/10\/turnabout-house-republicans-say-they-ll-investigate-climate-scientist-requesting<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A climate scientist who was the lead signatory on a letter to President Obama, supporting a proposed RICO investigation of some corporate opponents to action on climate change, has himself been threatened with a Congressional investigation by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX).\u00a0 Rep. Smith \u2013 chair of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1475,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[642],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3682","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-congress","7":"czr-hentry"},"yoast_head":"\nClimate Scientist Threatened with Investigation by Member of Congress for Purported \u201cPartisan Political Activity\u201d - Climate Law Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2015\/10\/14\/climate-scientist-threatened-with-investigation-by-congress\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Climate Scientist Threatened with Investigation by Member of Congress for Purported \u201cPartisan Political Activity\u201d - Climate Law Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A climate scientist who was the lead signatory on a letter to President Obama, supporting a proposed RICO investigation of some corporate opponents to action on climate change, has himself been threatened with a Congressional investigation by Rep. 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