"Two Climate Denying Senators Will Now Supervise the Nation's Climate Science"

"So, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was just named to be the chairman of the Subcommittee on Space, Science, and Competitiveness as Republicans take over the Senate. This subcommittee (which used to be just Space and Science but was recently renamed) is in charge of oversight of, among other things, NASA.

Before I rip into this, I want to be as fair as possible here: Poking around the Web, I don't see any statements from Cruz that I'd consider directly antithetical to NASA's efforts specifically to explore space. For example, in 2013 he wanted to reduce NASA's budget, but that was more so that it would comply with the caps set by the Budget Control Act. In fact, he made a statement saying, "Proceeding with an authorization while pretending that the existing law is something other than what it is, is not the most effective way to protect the priority that space exploration and manned exploration should have." That's at least superficially heartening.

But that's not to say he doesn't pose a clear danger: Cruz is a staunch denier of global warming."

Phil Plait reports for Climate Desk January 13, 2015.