New House Science Committee Chair Ralph Hall Threatens to Subpoena Climate Scientists

As we saw that thing bubbling out, blossoming out – all that energy, every minute of every hour of every day of every week – that was tremendous to me. That we could deliver that kind of energy out there – even on an explosion.

That’s Ralph Hall (R-TX), the incoming chair of the House Science and Technology Committee on the BP oil disaster.  Imagine how bowled over Hall will be if he ever figures out that his anti-science pro-pollution denialist policies are poised to deliver a ruined climate to future generations.

Brad Johnson has more:

Rep. Ralph Hall (R-TX) plans to pursue an aggressive pro-oil agenda as the incoming chair of the House Science and Technology Committee. In an interview with the Dallas Morning News this month, the “unconditional champion of fossil fuels” described his zeal for the “holy grail” of the oil industry — the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge — discussed issuing subpoenas to interrogate climate scientists, and explained why the BP disaster “didn’t dampen his enthusiasm for offshore drilling.”

Hall described the BP explosion that killed eleven men, injured dozens, and led to the despoilment of the Gulf of Mexico as a “tremendous,” “blossoming” flower of energy:  “As we saw that thing bubbling out, blossoming out – all that energy, every minute of every hour of every day of every week – that was tremendous to me. That we could deliver that kind of energy out there – even on an explosion.”

In an extensive report yesterday, the New York Times describes the explosion differently: “Dazed and battered survivors, half-naked and dripping in highly combustible gas, crawled inch by inch in pitch darkness, willing themselves to the lifeboat deck. . . . Crew members, certain they were about to be cooked alive, scrambled into enclosed lifeboats for shelter, only to find them like smoke-filled ovens.”

Only conservatives can marvel at the damage their policies are doing — and then in the same breath continue doing them.  The same Dallas News story reports:

With the House GOP full of climate-change skeptics, Hall’s committee is likely to investigate the scientific studies that say man-made activities are to blame for global warming. Environmental groups say that debate is settled. Nonetheless, Hall said he plans to appoint an aggressive legislator, Rep. James Sensenbrenner, to chair the subcommittee that investigates scientific activities.

Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., can be expected to hold hearings that question “uncertainties” in climate-change science that impact public policy, said John Mimikakis, a former deputy chief of staff for the science committee. Sensenbrenner recently referred to the scientific consensus on global warming as a “massive international scientific fraud.”

“I’m interested in the truth on that,” Hall said. “There are a lot of people who believe that a lot of decisions were made on the false statements of others.

“I’ll try to find out who those others are, and ask them to come before the committee,” he said. “And if they don’t come before the committee, well, we might subpoena them.”

And so it begins….