Some interesting testimony to be presented at a Senate hearing today

I sure hope Dr. Legate’s testimony leaves a permanent mark.
I also hope Rep Kennedy reads it too as he was sure trying to intimidate, not discuss nor learn the other day.

Here’s my report on this video for those of you who would like to know what was said, without wanting to waste 2 hours of your life, or who would like to skip to specific times.
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U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public works, “Farming, Fishing Forestry and Hunting in an era of climate change”
Committee member remarks
0:00 Screen background
6:51 Sen Merkley (acting chair, D-Oregon, chairman Barbara Boxer, D-California absent) (alarmist, promoting need for Obama’s new EPA regulations and warning to heed the National Climate Assessment report which has been previously discussed on WUWT)
10:40 Sen Wicker (R-Mississipi) (talks about draconian regulations from the EPA raising costs but doing nothing to change temps, our CO2 reductions will be countered by Chinese increases, higher utility bills will kill jobs, more CO2 benefits crops and forests, he distiguishes between CO2 and global warming hypotheses vs “carbon” pollution (ie. black soot/unburned hydrocarbons) that the left is intentionally conflating)
16:35 Sen Sessions (R-Alabama) (growing body of skeptical scientists belies “consensus”, US economy too fragile to absorb hit from new CO2 regulations, admonishes witness Ashe’s previous statements on increasing droughts and wildfires, mentions “the pause”, trees will eat CO2, folksy talk about more wildlife in the woods near where he grew up, talks about defending free speech and 1st Amendment at his next hearing later in the day)
21:45 Sen Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) (mentions this is 31st hearing on global warming but impetus for action in the Senate has declined steadily, EPA regulations will harm US economy, Congress will not pass cap and trade so Obama pushing regulatory “solution”, compares Germany economic stagnation due to higher energy prices to Obama’s new reality, mentions “the pause”, mentions Tom Stires bundling activity to politically resurrect global warming, if Republicans take the majority in the Senate and he becomes the new committee chair, he will authorize CRA (Congressional Review Act) for every new EPA regulation)
Witness testimonies
27:29 Sen Tester (D-Montana) (responding to Tom Stires issue, he talks about “dark money” in Congress and invites “transparency” by outlawing political influence of money, alarmist, he’s a down-home working farmer, he goes into anecdotal reminscences about more hailstorms now than in the past, his pond dries up, never happened before, US Forest Service spending on fighting forest fires skyrocketing, Hurricane Sandy spending is huge, new pests, beatle kill in forest, “historic” drought, record floods in Billings, doesn’t know what’s going on, but we NEED TO DO SOMETHING! But then he says last year, he had a record crop, but nevertheless he sees things in climate that hes never seen before, and it’s not a stretch to reduce 30% of our CO2 emissions, says coal does not need to go away, precautionary principle, blah blah blah)
37:50 Dan Ashe, Director – US Fish and Wildlife Service (Federal bureaucrat, he says hunters and fishermen helped to address loss of wetlands, pesticide pollution, and other environmental changes, and they now need to support climate change regulations, bird migrations, fish habitat due to rising water temps, blah blah blah, it’s worser than anyone can imagine, Obama’s new EPA regulations will miraculously fix everything, apparently)
1:05: Sen Merkley questions Ashe and Ashe repeats points, Merkley shows step and linear temp increase charts, increasing temps will continue to go up. Scary stuff.
1:14:27 James Walls, Executive Director – Lake County Resources Iniative (Oregon wind turbine rent seeker, forest fire alarmist)
1:20:37 Clay Pope, Executive Director – Oklahoma Association of Conservation Districts (USDA no-till farming advocate and bureaucrat, rent seeker, alarmist)
1:26:11 Daniel Cohen – Owner, Atlantic Capes Fisheries (ocean acidification / temperature alarmist and rent seeker, has formed company to build off-shore wind farms)
1:31:51 David South, Emeritus Forestry and Wildlife Professor, Auburn University (forest fires are due more to poor and unscientific human and USDA management than with CO2 based climate change)
1:36:50 David R. Legates, CCM Professor of Geography, University of Delaware (increased CO2 benefits farming and forestry, storms and droughts not increasing, GCMs fail, scientific debate is corrupted by academic PC totalitarianism, his FOIA issues are previously documented on WUWT, compares climate science to Lysenkoism in USSR)
Questions to witnesses (each Senator given 5 mins)
1:42:11 Chairman Merkely to Mr. Walls asking about effects of CO2 on forests, Walls says renewables can offset 93% of all the increased CO2. Other softballs, he asks if more heat, drought, beatle kill increase fire danger. Yes. To Mr. Pope Are higher temps affecting wheat production? Walls says yes, but mentions climate patterns, apparently wanting to avoids temps as a direct cause. To Mr. Cohen Are higher temps affecting oysters? Cohen says oysters are gone from Chesapeake due to overfishing, but ocean acidification is real. He mentions uncertainty in knowing why oysters spawn makes it difficult to assess recovery of species.
1:48:41 Sen Sessions to panel – We need to stop scientific bullying and totalitarianism, no comment. he mentions lower drought trend. Mr. Pope says current drought in Oklahoma is stronger and dryer than the dust bowl, only tilling practices are different. Mr. South talks about fewer droughts overall, and some regional variation. Mr. South says forests are starting to recover where bad management practices have made them vulnerable to fire.
1:54:10 Sen Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) argues against Sen Sessions, says Rhode Island getting too much rain, tells an anecdote about fishermen he knows, fishing is different, sub-tropical species now caught in NE waters, 10 inches of sea level rise since 1938 (really? seems high to me, is there some subsidence in RI?), then launches into over the top alarmist catastrophic stuff and lands with the precautionary principle stuff, no questions ever asked of witnesses.
1:57:10 Sen Vitter, a late arrival (R-Louisiana ) reminds Mr. Ashe about previous appearance questions regarding EPA regs, Ashe never followed up, he isn’t doing his job properly. To Mr. South, is Harry Reid correct when he says wildfires are caused by global warming? No, this is unscientific propaganda. Human suppression of fire has resulted in fewer fires, but urban sprawl is creating more economic damage, and takes fire fighters away from fire containment. Logging, thinning and fuel reductions would help fire problem.
2:04:25 Sen Wicker is appalled by insulting behavior of Sen. Whitehouse comments implying witnesses South and Legates represent a trivial fringe and he ties this to the bullying and scientifically closed minds mentioned by Sen. Sessions. He mentions skeptical petition signed by 30,000 climate skeptics. This is supported by Legates. He brings up a bet made by Mr. South regarding an “ice free Arctic by 2013” and then South mentions a similar bet he’s willing to make about sea level rise in Charleston S. Carolina. Ps. for some real climate bets, Google Jo Nova’s name.
2:10:05 Chairman Merkely makes a closing statement, thanks witnesses, says climate change impacts are real, happening now, measurable, affect our livelihoods, and affect wildlife, hunting and fishing. Then ticks off a list of dire consequences, bark beatles, fish migrations, more wildfires, drought, no new oyster babies, and we must not ignore them.