Jonathan Leake, The Sunday Times
The American government has suspended its funding of the University of East Anglia’s climate research unit (CRU), citing the scientific doubts raised by last November’s leak of hundreds of stolen emails.
The US Department of Energy (DoE) was one of the unit’s main sources of funding for its work assembling a database of global temperatures.
It has supported the CRU financially since 1990 and gives the unit about £131,000 ($200,000 USD) a year on a rolling three-year contract.
This should have been renewed automatically in April, but the department has suspended all payments since May pending a scientific peer review of the unit’s work.
The leaked emails caused a global furore. They appeared to suggest that CRU scientists were using “tricks” to strengthen the case for man-made climate change and suppressing dissent.
A spokesman for the DoE said: “The renewal application was placed on hold pending the conclusion of the inquiry into scientific misconduct by Sir Alastair Muir Russell.”
Muir Russell published his report earlier this month. It said that the rigour and honesty of the CRU scientists were not in doubt but criticised them for “a consistent pattern of failing to display the proper degree of openness”.
The DoE peer review panel will now sift through the report and decide if American taxpayers should continue to fund the unit.
A spokesman for the university said: “We are still waiting to hear if the latest bid for funding to the US Department of Energy has been successful and would not comment or speculate in the meantime.”
The Sunday Times, 18 July 2010
Once US administration announced the 42 Billion dollars in funding for new reactors, the funding of the CRU was no longer needed. I expect that UK Nirex Ltd. and KFA Germany will soon follow the DoE in their ‘examination’.
Once all of the near-shore LNG terminal are likewise funded we will see the Big Oil companies (and the Sultanate of Oman) pull their funding of the CRU for some reason.
Once Britian starts full funding for Ethenol we will see Tate and Lyle and Broom’s Barn Sugar Beet Research Centre find a ‘reason’.
Great, give the funding to NOAA to support the expansion of the National Climatic Data Center; http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/data.html. They share the research reports and data openly.
Let’s get correct Peer Reviewed data for North and South America before implying we have a baseline for Global Climate Models.
OT: has anyone run across any ice-core research and analysis from the glaciers in Alaska? The research, other then ice-cores, I’ve found indicate the temperature analysis from Antarctica and Greenland ice-cores does not properly reflect temperature in this area of the Arctic during the last glacial (possibly all glacials).
Chu may have once been a scientist, but was assimilated up by the borg that is AGW. Expect nothing more than the usual whitewash from DoE. The narrative must be adhered to, resistance is futile, you will be assimilated.
$200,000 can hardly be concidered major funding. Cuccinellini has spent much more that in his little snipe hunt.
I respectfully suggest to the DOE peer review panel use a high-quality enamel, instead of regular whitewash. It will be more durable, and more cost-effective in the long run. And we’re paying for it, after all.
After following the Congressional Investigation Whitewash of the “Downer Cow ” fiasco and the Conagri e-coli investigation, I have no hopes for a factual assessment. If Congress supports corporations that sell tainted food to consumers with the blessings of the USDA how can we expect a fair hearing for CO2? There is another parallel. Food recalls have increased and become major headlines. Instead of fixing the problem at the food processing plants and returning to government oversight, the “new improved” food safety regulations explicitly leave HACCP in place and impose trackback to the farmer so processing plant SNAFUs and liability can be blamed on the farmer. Don’t you love the logic?
The old US food safety regulations required feces tainted meat to be condemned. The new improved food safety regulations of 1996 called HACCP allow feces to be washed off the meat and the meat sold to you and me. Also HACCP allows corporate testing to replace USDA testing, so there is no safety check that the feces contaminated meat is actually safe.
See the GAP major report titled “Shielding the Giant: USDA’s ‘Don’t Look, Don’t Know’ Policy for Beef Inspection. http://www.foodhaccp.com/1news/121508g.html
New Safety Rules [HACCP] Fail to Stop Tainted Meat: http://www.blueverticalstudio.com/go/?p=609
Here is the ConAgra fiasco
One E. coli O157:H7 Outbreak I Think I could have Prevented: http://www.marlerblog.com/2009/07/articles/lawyer-oped/one-e-coli-o157h7-outbreak-i-think-i-could-have-prevented/
ConAgra to Recycle Poop-Tainted Meat into Canned Chili and Pet Food: http://www.purefood.org/toxic/poop080702.cfm
Stopping the funding pending a review just gives more work to the DOE bureau. It means nothing by itself.
Dr.Chu is probably scrupulous about his own work. No reason to think or imply otherwise. But as a political administrator and policy maker he cannot be wholly in control of what gets approved or stopped and who is favored or punished even within the DoE.
The peer review must speak for itself.
From the article:
“Muir Russell published his report earlier this month. It said that the rigour and honesty of the CRU scientists were not in doubt…”
Muir Russell’s definition of ‘rigor’ doesn’t fit with Phil Jones admitting that the CRU lost a large part of its data, and the rest of it is in disarray. How is that ‘rigorous’?
And of course this temporary funding halt is just smoke and mirrors.
Theo Goodwin says:
July 18, 2010 at 9:32 am
. Finally, there is the possibility that maybe, just maybe, Obama is looking for an excuse not to push Cap’n Trade.
I think you have that right.
It’s about time. The complete and total economic collapse of the US will take care of the rest of the scam artists.
I believe global warming is for real. I do not believe man-made global warming is for real. I believe global cooling is for real and that is what is happening today.
Wasn’t it those guys who were shredding data?
I think this shows the REAL agenda. Watch Stewards video of EIGHT presidents saying the US must stop being dependent of oil.
So EIGHT presidents fail.
Here is my theory; For some reason the leadership thinks is bad being dependant on oil. Why? My guess is the FLOW of big money to the arab states. It finance the islamic world big time.
The leadership of the US finally finds a way; Convince the gullibles that CO2 is dangerous. Tax it so it becomes so expensive that other solutions are forced into play.
Many, many people think this is a nice solution.That is way everyone plays along.
The greens love it. The politicians love it. The socialists love it. The media loves it.
There, thats my theory. Me thinks.
Tis an incestuous relationship and no one need expect anything other than a resumption and lo an increase in funding. Remember the politics of the regime.
That is until after November.
Unfortunately, Steven Chu is a hardcore believer in the science peer review process. It appears he may even supplant much of rigorous nuclear oversight process an model it after the peer review process. At this point, the climate science community needs to learn some lessons from the nuclear industry and develop more professional quality assurance, configuration management of their databases and processes, and truly independent oversight.
So the DOE is going to review a whitewash report. Why not look at the emails themselves. We have moved to the level where there are reviewers of fact that make up opinions for others to review and make up opinions ….. then check with a policy adviser or czar and then send the money.
David, UK says:
July 18, 2010 at 9:16 am
Don’t be daft – our government – like most governments these days – will do everything it can to maintain the status quo and keep the green train rolling.
The Renewables Obligation charge on all UK energy bills last year amounted to £1.2Bn. and is statutarily set to double by 2020. A nice fat pot for Ministers to get their hands in.
Chris Huhne continues to except Nuclear from a share in this munificence with our money on grounds so specious that my comprehension of them defies their description.
Will he appear on the Board of a renewables company when he leaves Parliament as a reward for shafting the populace? What do you think?
Ultimately, they’re going to find CRU did no wrong yada yada yada, AND that it validates global warming AND they need to pass the Cap and Trade bill immediately.
Barack Obama is in the WH, and everyone toes the line to his agenda, whether that’s Eric Holder letting Black Panthers off the voter-intimidation hook or Steven Chu nodding stupidly in the direction of CAGW, the agenda happens without regard to facts.
An international reader (non-USA teenager) might find some things here a little confusing. For example, John McManus @ur momisugly 10:47 uses the term “snipe hunt” in the sense of a prank, explained here:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Snipe+Hunt
… that says “Snipes are an imaginary game bird”.
This is not true, as indicated here:
http://birdweb.org/birdweb/bird_details.aspx?id=183
and here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snipe
This makes me wonder how many other things written here are not clear to the readers with differing backgrounds.
John McManus says:
July 18, 2010 at 10:47 am
$200,000 can hardly be concidered major funding
============================================================
John that’s $4 million.
$4 million to make some phone calls, send some emails, and write down some temperatures, which they lost, erased, deleted.
jaymam says:
July 18, 2010 at 8:30 am
> “In an odd way this is cheering news !”
RIP, John Daly.
As I have said some time back, many will be thrown under the bus.
We may be witnessing just that, or, as some suggest, epoxied whitewash.
Political climates change, and hot potatoes must necessarily get dropped.
Eric Dailey says:
July 18, 2010 at 9:53 am
There were so many other low hanging fruit….
It has been discussed here, at least under a different context. See http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/12/14/doe-sends-a-litigation-hold-notice-regarding-cru-to-employees-asking-to-preserve-documents/#comment-261031
THIS IS THE ‘REAL’ VICTORY!
No. $200,00 is not $4m. Even a rolling 3 year $200,000 is not $4m.
Snipes are real birds, but a snipe hunt is an exercise wherupon a sugestable loser is set upon a futile task in order to humiliate. Cuchinelli seems to have fallen for the trick.
Unless this investigation is designed to be adversarial, with each side allowed to call its own witnesses, ask questions of the other side’s witnesses under oath, and subpoena documents, then the DOE’s show is just another Potemkin village. The outcome will be another whitewash.
The DOE will fold and give them the money.
If not, they will go the way of NASA and have their formost goal to reach out to Muslims because it will help Islamic nations “feel good” about their accomplishments to energy production (remind them they send us oil).