(credit: Ryan J. Reilly) Over the past couple months, there's been an ongoing battle between Congressman Lamar Smith (R-Tex.), chair of the House Science Committee, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). After a June study published in Science concluded there was no evidence that global warming had slowed in recent years, Rep. Smith accused NOAA climate scientists of manipulating surface temperature data for political reasons. Rep. Smith has subpoenaed the internal communications of those scientists despite being provided all the data, methods, and rationale behind the work. NOAA replied it does not intend to release e-mails between scientists. On December 1, Rep. Smith changed tack in a letter reiterating his demands. The letter complained that NOAA’s objections had focused on his requests for scientists’ communications, when he was also requesting communications between other NOAA staff. So he modified his…
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