The quality of the hockey stick data is too high to let the public get their hands on it.
Today, Virginia taxpayers, a state lawmaker and a public interest law firm are asking the University of Virginia to produce important “global warming” records under that state’s Freedom of Information Act. These are records the school no longer denies possessing but nonetheless refuses to release, even to Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. They address one of the most high-profile claims used to advance massive economic-intervention policies in the name of “global warming.”
In response to a previous FOIA request, U.Va. denied these records existed. However, during Cuccinelli’s pre-investigation under the Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act (“FATA”), a 2007 law passed unanimously by Virginia’s legislature, which clearly covers the work of taxpayer-funded academics, U.Va. stunningly dropped this stance. For this reversal, the taxpayers of Virginia owe Cuccinelli a debt of gratitude.
Still, the school has spent upward of half a million dollars to date fighting Cuccinelli’s pursuit, now before the Virginia Supreme Court. However, Virginia’s transparency statute FOIA gives the school one week to produce the documents, and offers no exemption for claims U.Va. is using to block Cuccinelli’s inquiry.
These e-mails and other documents relate to claims made by Michael Mann to obtain, and claim payment under, certain taxpayer-funded grants. Mann worked at the university’s department of environmental sciences when he produced what was hailed at the time as the “smoking gun” affirming the theory of catastrophic man-made global warming.
Despite that lofty honorific, persistent controversy led promoters of this notorious “Hockey Stick” graph (principally, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change or IPCC) to stop advancing it as serious work.
Turning up the heat….. May it lead to James Hansen on the hot seat in Washington!
Now that’s some warming I could live with. 😉
OT but about a release of info:-
The HadCRUT3 number for November 10 has finally been posted at +0.431C.
http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/data/temperature/hadcrut3gl.txt
On the site today 6th Jan 11 though the darlings have put an “updated” date of 20/12/2010!
http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/data/temperature/
Anyhow +0.431C gives +0.493C for 11 months. Doubtful that it will get near the +0.548C (funny I thought it was +0.52C) for 1998. Might not even get to 2005 – +0.482C.
Time will tell.
“In response to a previous FOIA request, U.Va. denied these records existed. However, during Cuccinelli’s pre-investigation under the Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act (“FATA”), a 2007 law passed unanimously by Virginia’s legislature, which clearly covers the work of taxpayer-funded academics, U.Va. stunningly dropped this stance.”
Shouldn’t there be ramifications for this infraction of the FOIA law? Is there anyone on the left that takes these infractions seriously? The shoe could be on the other foot one day. It is a matter of principles, which I guess explains the discrepancy.
Why should we give this to you….
….you just want to find fault with it
“Why should I make the data available to you, when your aim is to try and find something wrong with it?”.
http://www.eastangliaemails.com/emails.php?eid=810&filename=.txt
Nice reference and one of my favorite quotes. But it does make you wonder how damaging the material is that they would go to such links to prevent it from getting out in the open. If it showed them, and Mann, in a positive light and supported what Mann has been saying publicly, it seems that would have been immediately released – at the request of Mann – to shut the critics up.
ps – here is another good quote from one of my all time favorites: “Under such circumstances, why would I even bother answering your questions, isn’t that just lost time?”
Exactly, if there was nothing wrong, they would have been shouting it from the rooftops.
These administrators at the U Va burned through $500K of the taxpayers’ money in their attempts to sequester (get it?) Mann’s documents. Mann’s documents must have a huge carbon footprint., but seriously someone needs to be prosecuted for their flagrant mis-use of University (tax payer) funds.
“Mann’s documents must have a huge carbon footprint”
..so Mann made global warming is man made global warming
Justajoe – Yea, MY MONEY! And yet they still whine and moan they do not have enough money to educate the kids – I guess not! Wasting a million here, a million there (on frivolous lawsuits) and then allowing charlatans to walk away with more money!
Jefferson is turning over in his grave!
Is it too early to say “Gotcha!”?
lol, their lies are starting to catch up with them.
Can we identify the perpetrators involved? Why should they go anonymous? Where is Wikileaks when you really need them?
Not around here! They are afraid it will hurt “their” cause.
Ref: The $500k, I believe they have made an FOIA request for details of this too 😉
Look here, you just have to ask the right people if you want private academic records from U Va. Just ask Greenpeace, they got all of Patrick Michaels’ records:
“Importantly, also under FOIA in late 2009, the pressure group Greenpeace sought, and was promised, e-mails and other materials of Patrick Michaels, who also formerly worked in the same university department.
While the university proceeded to compile the material for Greenpeace, one of us, Virginia Del. Bob Marshall, R-Prince William, thought to ask for records relating to Michaels’ former colleague, Mann. Oddly, the university informed Marshall that such records no longer existed because Mann had left the department.
Michaels has stated that the university, in explaining to him these disparate responses, asserted that some people’s records are treated differently than others. Mann’s were allegedly destroyed; Michaels’ were being packaged for delivery to Greenpeace.”
Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/op-eds/2011/01/yes-virginia-you-do-have-produce-those-global-warming-documents#ixzz1AI2vpbcp
Patrick Michaels is a climate scientist and U. Va had no problem giving his records to Greenpeace. What is Mann and U. Va hiding?
The truth must really hurt!
The court today has ordered the University to fork them over.
Right on!