House Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans Press Release :: SEC: Never Mind Madoff; What Are We Doing about Global Warming?

WASHINGTON – U.S. Reps. Joe Barton, R-Texas, ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Greg Walden, R-Ore., ranking member of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, today wrote to Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro regarding plans under consideration by the commission to call for corporations to be required to explain how they are alleviating global warming.

“We note with interest that the Securities and Exchange Commission evidently has concluded that, having permitted the now-imprisoned Bernard Madoff to bilk as much as $50 billion from trusting investors, it will now turn its investigative eye toward global warming instead of investor protection,” Barton and Walden wrote. “Had the colossal failure of the commission to notice the Madoff Ponzi scheme after six separate and substantive tip-offs not occurred, and even if you had not overlooked a top SEC official’s romantic involvement with Mr. Madoff’s niece during that disgraceful episode, we would be troubled by an undertaking which seems so transparently political and such a breathtaking waste of the Commission’s resources.”

Roger Pielke Jr.'s Blog: Lord Stern's Spokesperson Responds

Bob Ward, Policy and Communications Director at the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics, where Nicholas Stern in the Chair, has kindly written in to the comments, responding to my post on how the Stern Review Report misused the Robert Muir-Woods paper and quietly altered a typo that revealed the fuzzy math. Bob's comments are below, with my responses in the inset boxes, with a black line around them. I thank Bob for his engagement.

Roger Pielke Jr.'s Blog: Bob Ward's Big Day

Bob Ward is at it again. It is interesting that no scholars have stepped up to the IPCC on the disasters and climate issue, leaving the task to Lord Stern's spokesman. Below is a piece that he had on the Guardian site today, defending the IPCC against claims that it had sexed up its sections on disasters and climate change. Bob is a PR pro, and while there is enough spin in his piece to make anyone dizzy, the piece is remarkable for how little there is in it to contradict my claims. Ward seems to rest his critique on the notion that this is old news.

Below I unpack the key parts of the piece.

Know your enemy | CLIMATEGATE

We sure hope the EDF never figures out which is our email address in their mailing list, because we really enjoy getting them. Like the last one, entitled “We’re Not Licked!” (on their climate change scheming) — obviously, they feel they are licked.

C3: Can The IPCC Ship Be Salvaged? Not Likely, As It Keeps Taking Hits Below The Water Line

I once held hard-science scientists in high esteem. That is the case no longer and I wonder how many others have had their respect for scientists stripped.

Talbyv: The Late George Carlin on Global Warming

[Now with nearly 2 million views]