To paraphrase Marcellus’ famous line from Hamlet “Something smells rotten in the District of Columbia.” And the smell’s coming from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

NOAA is a federal agency led a study that indicated that there was no global warming pause contradicting previous evidence that suggested a global warming hiatus. The Study was lead by NOAA head Thomas Karl and used temperature records from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (well they used the data and made some “adjustments” which made their case work).

In July, the US House of Representatives Science, Space and Technology committee Chairman Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) , asked NOAA for both data and internal communications related to the study .

Despite the fact that Rep. Smith request was legitimate based on his congressional oversight responsibilities, the federal government’s chief climate research agency refused to give the house committee the detailed information they want:

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Comments This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Completing this poll grants you access to The Lid updates free of charge. You may opt out at anytime. You also agree to this site's Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. “Because the confidentiality of these communications among scientists is essential to frank discourse among scientists, those documents were not provided to the Committee,” the agency said. “It is a long-standing practice in the scientific community to protect the confidentiality of deliberative scientific discussions.”

Translating that into English “we are hiding something.” It might be a long-standing practice of the scientific community but the American taxpayers are paying for it. As Chairman of the Science, Space and Technology committee, Rep. Smith has every right to see what he wants. We’re paying for the NOAA research they have to turn it over…or perhaps the NOAA is due for a budget cut of 100%.

I agree with Rep. Smith when he said:

“NOAA needs to come clean about why they altered the data to get the results they needed to advance this administration’s extreme climate change agenda,The Committee intends to use all tools at its disposal to undertake its Constitutionally-mandated oversight responsibilities.”

There is absolutely no reason for the NOAA to with hold their information unless they have something to hide. And as a federal agency it is their obligation to cooperate with Congressional oversight.