Sound science and environmentalism just don't mix...

Gregg, the Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, slipped in a last minute rider to the just passed CJS Appropriations bill that exempts the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) from complying with the mandates of the Data Quality Act. The DQA guarantees the use of sound science in policy making by ensuring and maximizing the quality, objectivity, utility and integrity of scientific information federal agencies use. If approved, NOAA would be the only agency exempt from sound science. NOAA's DQA regulations are available here.

NOAA, of course, oversees the National Climatic Data Center and is the lead agency in conducting research into the existence and effects of climate change. By exempting NOAA, this provision will prevent an honest evaluation of the science of climate change from occurring and ensure that future policy decisions are based not on sound science but rather on junk science.

Thanks to the Countertop Chronicles for the scoop. I would think that sound scientific data would be one thing that all sides in the environmental debate would agree on, but it seems that just isn't so. Of course, the political wing of the environmental movement appears to have become dominated by the agenda of eco-terrorists and hypocrits, rather than people truly concerned about conservation, so I shouldn't be surprised by this sort of thing.