05.25.17

Grijalva to Zinke: Who Removed Reference to Climate Change Science in U.S. Geological Survey Press Release?

Washington, D.C. – Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) sent a letter to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke today requesting information on the administration’s censoring of a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) press release put out after three USGS scientists and three outside colleagues published new climate change research in the journal Nature Scientific Reports. The administration, as the Washington Post reported, removed a reference in the press release to the relationship between climate change and sea level rise.

“This type of activity is unacceptable,” Grijalva writes today. “Corporate polluters and the big oil lobby are continuing their misinformation campaign designed to cast doubt upon the kind of top-notch science that this and other USGS studies represent. Mr. Trump has aided that campaign and now, more than ever, the public needs reassurance that his Administration will not persecute scientists or suppress the findings of their work.”

Among other questions, Grijalva asks Zinke whether the release was reviewed before publication by Acting Deputy Secretary of the Interior James Cason, who has been given broad authority to review the vast majority of Interior Department actions – authority Grijalva and Rep. Donald McEachin (D-Va.) sought to clarify in a May 2 letter to Zinke that has received no response.

Today’s full letter is available at http://bit.ly/2rldtbQ.

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