​It was 96 degrees Fahrenheit in Fairbanks, Alaska yesterday. The city built on permafrost will experience a high of 86 degrees today.

Media Matters reports on the GOP war on science:

Thirteen Republican members of the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, led by Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX), are wrongly accusing 17 attorneys general and eight environmentally focused organizations of trying to “silence speech” by ExxonMobil and other companies that may have intentionally misled shareholders and the public about climate change. Media coverage of the committee members’ actions should note that they have taken a combined $3.4 million from the fossil fuel industry -- and that all 13 members have received money directly from Exxon. Moreover, Smith has a track record of baselessly attacking climate scientists, and the committee members announced their efforts on the same day that Exxon-funded fronts groups made the same deceptive “free speech” allegation in a full-page ad in The New York Times.

Lamar Smith of Texas, Chairman of the House Science Committee issued subpoenas against two state Attorney Generals and several nongovernmental advocacy groups on Wednesday. Inside Climate News reports.

"The attorneys general have appointed themselves to decide what is valid and invalid regarding climate change. Attorneys general are pursuing a political agenda at the expense of scientists' rights to free speech." The committee issued 10 subpoenas that order information be turned over within two weeks. Smith also did not preclude the possibility of hearings before the committee. Eric Soufer, a spokesman for New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman, scoffed at the announcement, saying "Chairman Smith and his allies have zero credibility on this issue." "The American public will wake up tomorrow morning shaking their heads when they learn that a small group of radical Republican house members is trying to block a serious law enforcement investigation into potential fraud at Exxon," Soufer said. "This Attorney General will not be intimidated or deterred from ensuring that every New Yorker receives the full protection of state laws."

DeSmogBlog reports on Lamar Smith’s staffers ties to “people working for Smith, both past and present,” that have ties to Exxon. From the same Media Matters article:

Lamar Smith's senior legislative aide, Scott Ferguson, went on two trips funded by the American Exploration and Production Council, one in 2014 and one in 2015. One of the Council's members is XTO Energy, the hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”)-focused subsidiary of ExxonMobil. [...] Smith's former communications director, Sally-Shannon Birkel, now serves as senior manager of media relations for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is funded by both the [Koch brothers] and ExxonMobil. [...] Another former Smith communications director, Brad Bennett, left Smith's office and eventually transitioned into gigs at both Hill and Knowlton (a PR firm with roots in tobacco industry denial tactics which did PR on behalf of America's Natural Gas Alliance, ANGA) and DCI Group, the latter of which has key Exxon ties and was subpoenaed in April by the Attorney General of the U.S. Virgin Islands in the Attorneys General probe. [DeSmogBlog, 6/21/16 ]