With the majority of Americans not convinced that “climate change” (remember when it was called “global warming?”) requires the comprehensive political controls on American energy and industry that the Obama administration would like to see in place, three members of Congress—Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Ed Markey (D-MA), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)—recently sent 107 letters to think tanks, trade associations and companies, demanding info about their funding.
Our friend John Allison, president and CEO of the Cato Institute, pushed back at this attempt at intimidation with a letter to the three senators. Giving the Senators a lesson on the First Amendment, John wrote, “It surprises nobody that you disagree with CATO’s views on climate change—among a host of issues—but that doesn’t give you license to use the awesome power of the federal government to cow us or anybody else.”
As Patrick J. Michaels, Cato’s director of the Center for the Study of Science, points out, “The actions of these members of Congress are exactly why Cato’s Center for the Study of Science was founded: the government wishes to use science as a weapon to increase its political power, then use that political power to create a more convenient political climate. We wish to change this climate of fear into one of truth—and we would like to extend an invitation to Sens. Markey, Boxer, and Whitehouse to join us.”
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