In response to the academic outcry over the letters of investigation Rep. Grijalva (D-AZ) sent to seven GOP witnesses after the Soonami, the representativeis now saying that his request for personal communication "was an overreach." Grijalva reiterated that his main focus is on the funding disclosure, and that as long as he gets a response about that "everything else is secondary and not necessary."
But Grijalva's statement didn't exactly assuage the annoyed Pielke, who responded by tweeting, "A member of Congress drags academics through the mud and then say [sic] 'never mind'. Unacceptable.” Then, in a blog post, Pielke oddly points out that for Grijalva's investigation to have merit, you'd either have to believe there's "a shadowy conspiracy of fossil fuel interests" giving money for researchers to produce specific results, or that there's no conspiracy but Pielke and others need to be smeared to be removed from the debate.
Given that this Soonami kicked off with clear evidence of fossil fuel interests giving money to a scientist whose research promised to undermine the consensus on climate change, it's pretty obvious that the investigation has merit. And if that's not enough, there's the study showing $120 million has gone to anti-climate groups to engage in this type of work. If that's still not enough, there are multiple books detailing how the fossil fuel and other industries have perpetrated exactly the type of conspiracy Pielke describes.
Finally, if you just can't stand reading, one of those books has become a movie, which opens on Friday in NY and LA and will be distributed nationally in the coming weeks!
Maybe someone should send Pielke a couple of tickets?
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