Thune wants investigation into alleged suppression of opposing climate-change view

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., wants an investigation into allegations of a scientific cover-up regarding the effects of greenhouse gases.

Thune said in a Tuesday news release that he sent a letter calling for an investigation to a top official at the Environmental Protection Agency. E-mails made public by the House and Energy Commerce Committee show evidence, Thune said, of an attempt by one scientist to “suppress” the work of another scientist who dissented with the EPA’s view on greenhouse gases linked to global warming.

“I am concerned about the credibility of the Obama administration’s arguments in favor of increased environmental activism and government regulation now that it is clear that legitimate differences of opinion are not tolerated within the EPA,” Thune said in the news release.

According to Thune, the e-mails show that Al McGartland, director of the National Center for Environmental Economics (NCEE), kept Alan Carlin, an economist at NCEE, from presenting his view that the EPA was incorrect in its research regarding greenhouse gases.

The EPA declared in April that carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases are a major hazard to Americans’ health. Last week, the House passed legislation that, if it becomes law, would restrict emissions of greenhouse gases in order to combat global warming.

“As Congress considers costly climate change legislation that has the potential to reshape our entire economy, a robust debate on the issue is necessary,” Thune said in the release.

The recent developments regarding greenhouse gases have led some ranchers and ranch-state lawmakers to fear that a “cow tax” could eventually be imposed, because cattle are among the biggest emitters of the greenhouse gas methane.

EPA officials have said they have no intention of regulating livestock emissions, but Thune has nonetheless introduced legislation to prohibit a fee or tax on those emissions.

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