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®: CRE Regulatory Action of the Week

Senate Bill to Improve Accuracy and Transparency of NASA Climate Data
On December 8, 2010, Senators Vitter and Barrasso introduced S. 4015, entitled Public Access to Historical Records Act. If enacted, this bill would dramatically improve the transparency and accuracy of NASA's historical temperature records, and it would guarantee public access to the data. Sen. Vitter said this about the bill:

    "Recent incidents, such as the investigation showing that the Obama administration manipulated data to justify the drilling moratorium, have raised concerns that some scientists and government agencies are using misleading data to support their favored viewpoints. This bill would open NASA's temperature records to public scrutiny and establish an objective set of data to ensure that influential climate research is protected from political agendas."
Sen. Barrasso added:
    "Each year, Americans are forced to spend billions of their hard-earned dollars to support climate change research. Since this administration promised to be the most open administration in history, it should immediately share NASA's temperature data with the American public," said Barrasso. "There are too many questions regarding temperature models not to allow all Americans access to this data. This legislation will ensure that our nation has the most accurate and transparent historic temperature record in the world."
This bill would force NASA to make all of its raw historical temperature data available online to the public. It would also require the agency to compile an official U.S. historical temperature record with oversight from an independent council of appointed meteorologists and statisticians. The resulting temperature record would be routinely reviewed for accuracy by an independent auditor and would be required for use as a primary source by any scientists or groups accepting federal money for climate research.

This bill has been referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation It is consistent with the Data Quality Act, which requires that scientific information from federal government agencies be accurate, clear, complete and unbiased.

For the current status of this bill, go to http://thomas.loc.gov/, and search for Bill Number S. 4015.