Obama Admin Harassed, Fired Top Scientist For Countering Climate Change Theory: Congress

President Obama’s administration harassed, intimidated and ultimately fired a top scientists at the Department of Energy who dared to counter the far left’s vision of climate change theory with fact, according to a new report from members of Congress.

The Washington Free Beacon reported House Committee on Science, Space and Technology Chairman Lamar Smith released a report that reveals the interference of senior Team Obama officials into the department’s scientific studies and findings. And according to the report, the intrusions at the Department of Energy were so intense they resulted in the intimidation of staff and retaliations against a scientist who were simply trying to bring facts of the impact of radiation to light.

From the Free Beacon:

“A top DoE scientist who liaised with Congress on the matter was fired by the Obama administration for being too forthright with lawmakers, according to the report, which provides an in-depth look at the White House’s efforts to ensure senior staffers toe the administration’s line.

“The report also provides evidence that the Obama administration worked to kill legislation in order to ensure that it could receive full funding for its own hotly contested climate change agenda.

“The report additionally discovered efforts by the Obama administration to censor the information given to Congress, interfering with the body’s ability to perform critical oversight work.

“‘Instead of providing the type of scientific information needed by Congress to legislate effectively, senior departmental officials sought to hide information, lobbied against legislation, and retaliated against a scientist for being forthcoming,’ Smith said in a statement. ‘In this staff report based on lengthy record before the committee, much has been revealed about how senior level agency officials under the Obama administration retaliated against a scientist who did not follow the party line.’

“‘Moving forward, the department needs to overhaul its management practices to ensure that Congress is provided the information it requires to legislate and that federal employees and scientists who provide that information do so without fear of retribution,’ Smith said.”

The report specifically looked at congressional attempts to regulate the Low Dose Radiation Research Program, a 1990s-era program that looked at the byproducts of waste cleanup and the dangers of nuclear weapons, as well as the impact of radiation on humans. In 2014, congressional members brought forward the Low Dose Radiation Act to regulate LDRRP.

And here’s what happened under President Obama, the Free Beacon found:

“During an October 2014 briefing with senior DoE staff on the matter, lawmakers heard testimony from Dr. Noelle Metting, the radiation research program’s manager.

“Less than a month later, lawmakers discovered that Obama administration officials had “removed Dr. Metting from federal service for allegedly providing too much information in response to questions posed by” Congress during the briefing, the report states.

“Congressional investigators later determined that the administration’s ‘actions to remove Dr. Metting were, in part, retaliation against Dr. Metting because she refused to conform to the predetermined remarks and talking points designed by Management to undermine the advancement of’ the 2014 radiation act.

“Emails unearthed during the investigation “show a sequence of events leading to a premeditated scheme by senior DoE employees ‘to squash the prospects of Senate support’ for the radiation act, a move that lawmakers claim was meant to help advance President Obama’s own climate change goals.

“‘The committee has learned that one of DoE’s stated purposes for Dr. Metting’s removal from federal service was her failure to confine the discussion at the briefing to pre-approved talking points,’ according to the report. ‘The committee has also established that DoE management … failed to exercise even a minimal standard of care to avoid chilling other agency scientists as a result of the retaliation against Dr. Metting for her refusal to censor information from Congress.’

“‘DoE placed its own priorities to further the president’s Climate Action Plan before its constitutional obligations to be candid with Congress,’ the report states.” …

“These moves by the administration were part of an effort to secure full funding for the president’s climate change agenda, the report claims.”