By LINDA McGURK
Indiana Correspondent

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In the wake of what some have branded the “Climategate” scandal, a group called the Coalition for Responsible Regulation on Feb. 11 petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reconsider its finding that human-caused greenhouse gases are a danger to public health and welfare. The group, which includes the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), claims that EPA’s endangerment finding may be based on flawed data, and asks the agency to reevaluate its reliance on data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

“EPA owes it to the American people to be sure a rule of this magnitude is based on accurate information, not fudged or fabricated temperature data,” Tamara Thies, chief environmental counsel for the NCBA, said in a statement. “Not only is the data questionable, but EPA also unlawfully sub-delegated its duties under the Clean Air Act to foreign entities with the clear agenda of promoting the theory of human-caused climate change. It is not lawful for EPA’s ‘scientific judgment’ to be based on foreign alarmist agendas. Reconsideration of this rule is essential to restoring America’s trust on this issue.”

The petitioners refer to a much-publicized controversy last November, when over 1,000 e-mails between scientists at the Climate Research Unit of the U.K.’s University of East Anglia were stolen and made public by a hacker. Whereas global warming skeptics held the e-mails were the smoking gun that revealed climate scientists as frauds who fudge temperature data, supporters of the climate change theory felt the scandal may have put a few researchers in a bad light, but didn’t alter the fundamentals behind the science and had little effect on the scientific consensus on global warming.

EPA did not return calls, but released a statement in response to the petition. The statement makes it clear that EPA’s position on climate change has not changed after the e-mail controversy.
“The question of the science is settled … the scientific evidence of climate change is overwhelming and greenhouse gases pose a real threat to the American people,” Cathy Milbourn, EPA climate change spokesperson, stated.

The NCBA and its allies in the Coalition for Responsible Regulation asks that the EPA prepare a “complete and objective record” of climate data, which would include all relevant studies and viewpoints, but none of what the petitioners deem to be “questionable or one-sided data.” The petitioners are also asking EPA to disclose the methods used to homogenize temperature records, and to subject these records to an independent review. Until a review of the science and methods has been completed, the petitioners request a moratorium on further regulatory actions or rulemakings based upon EPA’s endangerment finding.

The EPA issued the endangerment finding last December following a U.S. 2007 Supreme Court ruling, which determined that greenhouse gas emissions constitute air pollution and required EPA to determine whether air pollution from new cars could endanger public health. According to EPA, the ensuing endangerment finding was the result of a “comprehensive and transparent review of the soundest available science.”

According to NCBA spokesperson Bethany Shively, the petition was one of several complaints filed against EPA’s endangerment finding before the Feb. 16 deadline. A hearing date for the petition has yet to be determined, but “EPA is confident the finding will withstand legal challenge, allowing the Agency to protect the American people from the significant dangers posed by greenhouse gases and carbon pollution,” according to Milbourn’s statement.