Hansen’s resignation from NASA GISS may not be what it seems
Guest Post by Chris Horner, CEI
So, NASA’s in-house celebrity activist James Hansen says the following in explaining his departure from a lucrative perch — salary alone: $180k per year — one that proved extremely lucrative while there was a useful foil in the White House:
“‘As a government employee, you can’t testify against the government,’ he told the Times.”
Hogwash.
Not that “Job 1” for Hansen at NASA was attentiveness to ethics guidelines or anything, but the rules say no such thing. See 5 C.F.R. Part 6901.103 (c) and 5 C.F.R. 2635.805.
Indeed, on top of that cool $1 million-plus in outside cash tossed Hansen’s way after he ratcheted up the alarmism and — more important to many — politicking, he presided over an elaborate document removal/destruction operation run by his protégé and presumptive successor, Gavin Schmidt.
Now, we are to believe that Hansen is so concerned with his ethical obligations as a government employee that he is willing to operate by his own set of rules that, this time, are more restrictive than the real ones.
The fact is that Hansen, as a government employees, is not barred from testifying against the government. Ethics rules applying to Hansen at NASA simply say that he must seek permission to testify, just as he (usually, but not always) sought and, as the world knows in deed if not according to the rhetoric, received permission for his other global warming advocacy.
That requirement that Hansen first receive permission before testifying exists “to prevent an employee from using public office for the employee’s personal private gain”. Which (chuckle) is the same rationale behind the other ethics provisions under which Hansen sought and was routinely granted permission to make lots of outside money on his advocacy. Under George W. Bush.
So Hansen had no reason to believe he would not be permitted to do as he says he wishes.
Unless…
Ah, yes. Hansen’s current attention-getting story, when squared with the ethics rules, is that he has been denied approval to serve as an expert witness per 5 C.F.R 6901.103(d) and 5 C.F.R. 2635.805(c) (serving as a fact witness requires overcoming no such impediments).
Further curious is that his testimony would be a particularly easy approval if “the subject matter of the testimony does not relate to the employee’s official duties”. Which we know would be the case — despite our having argued the absurdity of the idea — because since 2006 he has been absolutely cleaning up with outside income only made acceptable by the supposed reality that his various speeches and prizes, etc., were apparently deemed by NASA as not relating to his official duties. Under Bush.
But now, suddenly, under President Obama, it seems that the subject matter of his activism would indeed relate to his professional duties. Per the administration. According to Hansen’s clear implication. Huh.
If we are to believe Hansen — and face it, we all want to believe him — he was denied permission to serve as an expert witness. If this occurred, it is clear that this is a recent development. That is, during the Obama administration.
Which administration is, apparently, “muzzling” Hansen.
Surely you’ve seen the stories.
Of course, it could be that Mr. Hansen is talking through his hat. Some might argue, not for the first time. For example, what case or cases did he inquire about? Or, did someone who mattered merely let on that, if he asked to testify against the administration, they would deep-six the idea?
It is entirely plausible that Hansen has simply found that his NASA gig isn’t what it used to be in better times for the global warming advocate. Times when, for example, the media had no torn allegiances between Hansen’s bombast and the White House.
For example, that whole “Bush muzzling Hansen” mythology was just that; useful to everyone pushing it to superstitiously or conveniently explain the world, but not supported by much evidence (and belied by thousands of interviews).
Notwithstanding this, it remains worth noting that Team Obama putting the squeeze on Hansen is far less far-fetched.
Sure, early on their Department of Justice did work hard to protect him, a valuable advocate in pushing “the cause,” from having his ethics records disclosed to us, maintaining specious legal claims well after we filed suit.
Then, after Hansen made a pain of himself by drawing even more unwanted attention to the festering Keystone XL pipeline decision, getting arrested with (other) celebrities in front of the White House, the caginess suddenly evaporated. I received a call asking where I would like to have a messenger deliver the entirety of Hansen’s relevant ethics records we had sought.
Which is how we, and anyone else interested, learned about just how lucrative Hansen’s NASA employment had become for him.
So long as the right foil was in the White House. Then, a government astronomer could make an astronomical sum off of global warming alarmism. Whatever the rules said. Maybe Keystone XL really is proving to be the “game-changer” the greens have said.
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Christopher Horner is a fellow of the Competitive Enterprise Institute and author, his most recent book being “The liberal War on Transparency
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This piece by anti-climate-science activist Horner, who regularly gets his space here on Anthony Watts’s blog, of the industry funded lobby group “Competitive Enterprise Institute”, which is known for its disinformation campaigns regarding results from scientific research that are inconvenient for some economic, political, and ideological interests, consists mostly of speculation, with some links to previous opinion pieces and unproven accusations by Horner. It probably is just an advertisement for his book anyway.
Indeed, on top of that cool $1 million-plus in outside cash tossed Hansen’s way…
Envious?
Dogs may bark but the caravan of climate science moves on.
REPLY: You are an employee at GISS, why not tell us the story you know rather than cast aspersions? – Anthony
For whatever reason, I am glad to see him go. Good riddance.
I really can’t follow this one. The abruptness of Hansen’s departure and his inability to articulate future plans probably indicate this wasn’t his idea. However, the “usefulness ended” theory runs afoul of the fact that he certainly was not politically useful to the Bush administration, yet he survived and thrived. I’m guessing the burden of defending the obvious conflict between Hansen’s outside antics and his official government agency duties simply became to pesky for NASA to bear.
Obummer’s strategy is to spread FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt). Obummer himself does the UD part (look at the uncertainty & doubt businesses now deal with), while he let’s the MSM & Hansen, Mann, etc do the F part. If Hansen is excused, many more are waiting to take his place.
Those with normalcy bias actually have delusions of democracy. We have a two party puppet show on autopilot to Armageddon as an unelected, feudal, one-world government. Under Bush the Elder climate research was ramped from $20 million per year to over $1 billion per year. All of the EXCESS spending was for “Carbon Endangerment Findings”. And as we all know, if all you search for is danger, danger is all that you will find.
Under the next puppet POYUS, Slick Willie, the COE of Fannie Mae set up the forced, Enron-styled housing funding frauds and also got the patent for the Carbon trading fraud. After Franklin Raines got $90 mill for his five year plan of housing market destruction, he joined the Carbon fraud market, see http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=168077
Under baby Bush (aka Shrub) the Carbon frauds continued with $2 billion in endangerment findings and EPA expansions into other energy related issues with the basic Earth elements of Sulphur and Lead. The COG, (aka Continuation Of Government) requires a seamless expansion of executive power. As the great feudalist Lenin said, “crush the middle class between the twin millstones of taxation and regulation”….all in the name of the children and the environment. The “Super Senate” gang of eight, and the “Super Governor” gang of ten federally selected regional governors, are part of the COG effort to streamline the clumsy Constitutional restrictions to the pending feudal-federal take-over. Perhaps the useful idiot of GISS is no longer useful in that effort.
Bottom line, he’s not content with the level of extremism he was permitted. Under Bush and under Obama. He will be more into the paid expert witness and public speaker gig and he will always be an activist masquerading as a scientist. Good thing that the more extreme he becomes, the less effective the mask.
Better to jump off the wagon, rather than being thrown off …
Real scientists are no doubt increasingly seeing, far too belatedly to do much good, just how bad Hansen is for all of science–about as bad as Obama is for American and global unity. Chris Horner seems dedicated to the investigatory line of “follow the power” (in this case, that of the President), but Hansen is like North Korea–he doesn’t care about who has the power, he has his “mission” to perform (against all obstacles). It suits his purpose, in the face of all the “jackals” nipping at his “science”, to redefine his favored combat arena, to concentrate on the larger war, on the larger stage. He probably sees his bread as best buttered now by working as a well-paid, established if not popular, speaker on the circuit (speaking to the choir, rather than before all those exasperating “inquiring minds”). Like every fool who finds public success, he thinks he knows what he is doing.
Might this allow him to “shake down” corporations and companies? Many activists will impose themselves in companies and demand fees or funding. If the company does not agree, these activist will begin a publicity campaign against the company. This guy could accuse a company or corporation of being a “Planet Killer” and the media will go along with him. Stock price could suffer as well as the dividend and investors will back away not wanting to be associated with an evil “Planet Killer” Some believe it’s better to pay the blackmail rather than have the company image tarnished. Stay tuned folks.
For one thing, because you and most of your followers here are not seriously interested in it anyway. And after all the smear against climate scientists, Hansen or others, all the distortions of facts and science, which has come from your blog, you don’t need to pretend you were.
You are not the kind of people with whom I am very interested in conversing about those things.
You asked me.
REPLY: “You are not the kind of people with whom I am very interested in conversing about those things.”
And yet, here you are. But let’s take that at face value and say that since you aren’t really here to converse by your own admission, your real motive for being here must be something else. Check. – Anthony
It would help if the post was written in English. The audible equivalent to this is fingernails on a blackboard.
“…presumptive successor, Gavin Schmidt.”
REALLY?? If his work with “Model E” is any indication, he shouldn’t be in charge of anything…
Jan P Perlwitz says:
April 8, 2013 at 6:48 am
“You are not the kind of people with whom I am very interested in conversing about those things.”
I take this as an admission that he really doesn’t know anything of interest to anyone…
Jan-
We are all interested in truth and the integrety of science. Can you provide the real data as collected for all sites in your database, please?
Jan P Perlwitz says:
April 8, 2013 at 6:48 am
REPLY: “You are not the kind of people with whom I am very interested in conversing about those things.”
And yet, here you are. But let’s take that at face value and say that since you aren’t really here to converse by your own admission, your real motive for being here must be something else. Check. – Anthony
—
Real motive? More snip fodder for his blog?
Jan, the funny thing is, your original post was the first thing I’ve seen by you here that I couldn’t really disagree with. All you basically said (minus the colorful descriptives and elaborations) boiled down to ‘this piece consists mostly of speculation.’ True enough.
Why not quit while you’re ahead for once?
If the Obama administration is going to get cap-and-trade or a carbon tax enacted, they have to tightly control the media coverage and spin. Perhaps Hansen is too much of a lightning rod for the opposition? Perhaps they want stealth alarmists pushing their position instead?
Jan-
We agree on this: “This piece by anti-climate-science activist Horner, who regularly gets his space here on Anthony Watts’s blog, of the industry funded lobby group “Competitive Enterprise Institute”, which is known for its disinformation campaigns regarding results from scientific research that are inconvenient for some economic, political, and ideological interests, consists mostly of speculation, with some links to previous opinion pieces and unproven accusations by Horner. It probably is just an advertisement for his book anyway.”
That said, this does not create an atmosphere where the real scientists fall to their level and do thing like not provide supporting data for their claims. Can you do that? Please…??? The real actual, uncorrected data.
Anthony Watts wrote:
Very clever. Now you have exposed me. Not.
When I’m not interested in a conversation with some people about specific matters it doesn’t mean I will refrain from any comment when an anti-climate-science activist writes a propaganda piece that mostly consists of speculation and smear. That’s all. Whatever you suspect about some sinister “real motive” on my side.
And to correct your false statement from before. I am not employed at GISS. I am not a federal employee. It’s not the first time I have told you that. Nevertheless, you keep repeating the incorrect information here.
REPLY: Since you won’t provide an insider’s view to Hansen’s resignation motvations, but only offer blustery rhetoric, I’d say the speculation hit the mark pretty well.
As for “I am not employed at GISS” I call bullshit on that, you are listed in the GISS Personnel Directory here:
http://www.giss.nasa.gov/staff/
Perlwitz, Jan P. COL 5607
The public info link to your listing says:
GISS Personnel Directory
Dr. Jan P. Perlwitz
Affiliation: Columbia University
NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
2880 Broadway
New York, NY 10025 USA
E-mail: jan.p.perlwitz@nasa.gov
Phone: 212-678-5607
So while your affiliation might be Columbia university, so is Jim Hansen’s whose professional web page is at Columbia
http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/
But he’s also employed at NASA GISS.
– Anthony
@Jan P Perlwitz says:
April 8, 2013 at 6:48 am
“…are not seriously interested in it anyway.”
I am.
I would like to hear about how GISS is structured, the number and type of people who work there, for how long, when and what they were recruited for, whether there is a unanimity of opinion on AGW, if there are debates within GISS on this generally, and on procedures relating to it, what the normal role and interests are of those who work there, how much collaboration with others outside GISS there is, whether there is any restructuring going on or anticipated, and how you view the role of GISS in AGW policy now and in the future. And anything else that might occur to you, about your personal interests and role, and generally.
Naturally, if you willing to give people such a guided tour, and add some of your own reflections, this would be of great general interest. If it was in the form of a constructed Mission Statement or the like, all nicely sanitized by PR to render it effectively dead, there is no point. If you would do this – and were allowed to do it properly – it would be greatly appreciated.
I think he’s pro-nuke and Obama doesn’t like nuke power, period.
It seems to me most professional environmentalists are also anti-nuke.
Has the prez ever had any photo ops at a nuke power plant to show support?
cn
Au contraire mon ami; I am willing to settle for nothing less than the pure, unvarnished TRVTH.
.
The ‘take away’ I think (and possibly missed by some in their haste to fulfill their “op-ed functionary roles”):
.
Jan P Perlwitz says:
April 8, 2013 at 7:34 am
…And to correct your false statement from before. I am not employed at GISS…
—-
Oh, did you get the boot too?
Jan P Perlwitz says:
April 8, 2013 at 6:48 am
I’m interested, I don’t look to Chris Horner to write something that doesn’t show his biases or bitterness.
Is Hansen going to remain at Columbia or is he completely retiring to become a full/part time activist? Who’s going to replace him at GISS? At Columbia? What sort of changes do you expect to see at GISS?
Why now? He’s old enough and clearly more interested in being on the speaking circuit and working with other activists that I’m surprised he didn’t leave NASA a couple years ago. Is he going to leave quiet or with something like a farewell address to Congress?
As for I am not employed at GISS I call bullsh!t on that, you are listed in the GISS Personnel Directory here:
http://www.giss.nasa.gov/staff/
Perlwitz, Jan P. COL 5607
—
Translation – he works for GISS via Columbia University where his salary and benefits are paid for by our Tax Dollar$ funneled from NASA/GSFC (and likely other government sources) along with exorbitant tuition and fees charged to kids and their parents by Columbia Univer$ity.
(Someday, taxpayers will be saved a tremendous amount of money by moving GISS completely out of NYC…)