House Science Committee Hearing Renews Battle of Science vs. Denial

Rep. Lamar Smith revved up his campaign against the EPA's "secret science," and took particular aim at refuting a NOAA study that debunked a global warming "pause."

Lamar Smith, the Texas Republican who chairs the House Science Committee, sounded the starting gun for an intensified contest in Congress over federal science on Tuesday, sparring with a former Democratic Congressman who now leads the nation's top science association.

The standoff pitted Smith, a long-time crusader against mainstream climate science, against Rush Holt, who now heads the prestigious American Association for the Advancement of Science.

They debated proposed limits on how the government uses science and clashed over one particular hot-button scientific study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that refuted theories of a pause in global warming.  That "pause" has been a favored arguing point among those who deny climate change.

The two men played familiar roles as adversaries in what is expected to be a much broader struggle over climate science and scientific integrity in the coming months.

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