"Scientists Keep Rallying Around NOAA Chief in Climate Feud"

"Scientists keep rallying behind Kathryn Sullivan, the federal official on one side of a two-month standoff with a senior House Republican over a groundbreaking climate change study.

On Monday, the chief of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration received a letter signed by 587 individual scientists from chemists to biologists urging to hold her ground against House science committee Chairman Lamar Smith’s campaign to discredit NOAA scientists. It follows a letter last month signed by seven scientific organizations representing hundreds of thousands of researchers warning that his efforts are 'establishing a practice of inquests'that will have a chilling effect.

The Texas Republican, through a subpoena and series of letters, is pressuring Sullivan and Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker to turn over the internal deliberations of NOAA scientists who published a study in Science in June that refuted the notion of a global warming ‘pause.' Smith, a climate change skeptic, contends that the study was 'rushed to publication' to advance President Obama’s climate agenda."

Lisa Rein reports for the Washington Post December 9, 2015.