By Rick Manning
The Obama Administration seems to seek out extremists to appoint to positions of power in the federal government. The latest outrage is Scott Doney, who has been nominated to the post of Chief Scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). A position which will have a profound a impact on the “science” of the global warming debate.
While the Chief Scientist position has been vacant for 14 years, stretching back to the middle of the Clinton Administration, apparently, the Obama Administration felt that it needs to be filled. And Doney, a long time alarmist about ocean acidification, is the man they have chosen for the Senate to consider.
Doney has made a living claiming that CO2 emissions are changing the pH levels in the ocean with disastrous effects looming. Doney clings to these claims in spite of his own 2008 admission while testifying before Congress that, “Major gaps exist in our current scientific understanding, limiting our ability to forecast the consequences of ocean acidification…”
Doney’s advocacy for a “precautionary approach to management, fishing pressure reduction and environmental stress minimization should therefore begin before acidification’s effects on marine resources become obvious,” admits that there is no current effect to marine resources, yet he still wants to significantly impact fishing, farming and energy industries in case he’s right.
NOAA, a heretofore little known agency outside of the always accurate weather bureau, is aggressively taking the lead in pushing global warming hysteria under the leadership of Obama appointee, Jane Lubchenco. While many find it ironic that an agency that cannot tell you for certain if it will rain this afternoon, is absolutely certain that climate change exists, and that it is a result of human activity.
Fishermen and those who live or work near coastal waterways should be particularly alarmed given Doney’s stated desire to limit fishing and coastal activities under the guise of “precautionary action.”
Americans for Limited Government’s Rebekah Rast has previously reported that NOAA is engaged in a massive effort to create ocean monuments and other designations that put vast areas off limits to commercial or even private use.
The Senate confirmation of Dr. Doney, should give the Senate an opportunity to fully examine the Administration’s far reaching ocean policy and whether someone who is the equivalent of the Chicken Little of the Seas, should be entrusted with controlling the “science” that NOAA uses.
Unfortunately, in Obama’s world, it appears that the only science that is valid is “political science,” and the Senate should reject Doney’s nomination. At a time when our economy is stumbling under the weight of uncertainty due to scheduled massive tax increases and voluminous regulations spewing from every portal of government, the last thing we need is a Chief Scientist at NOAA who is bent on attacking our fishing, farming and energy industries as a “precautionary measure.”
After all, NOAA survived just fine without a Chief Scientist since 1996, and they should be able to muddle along without one for a while more.
The author is the Director of Communications for Americans for Limited Government and the former Public Affairs Chief of Staff at the U.S. Department of Labor.
