Wired.com reports that the House Science Committee will no longer be controlled by science know-nothings.
FOR THE PAST eight years, climate science has been under a sort of spell in the House of Representatives. Instead of trying to understand it better or even acknowledging some of the field’s current uncertainties, House Science Committee Chairman Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) used his position to harass federal climate scientists with subpoenas while holding hearings on “Making the EPA Great Again” or whether “global warming theories are alarmist” and researchers are pursuing a “personal agenda.”
But Smith retired this year and Democrats won control of the House on Tuesday. Now some on Capitol Hill say that the anti-climate science spell may be broken.
“Hopefully we will no longer see the science committee used as a messaging tool for the fossil fuel industry,” says Rep. Bill Foster, an Illinois Democrat and science committee member. “I look forward to hearings with a balance of witnesses that reflect mainstream scientific hearings instead of a small group of industry players.”
Foster, who was a particle physicist before being elected to Congress in 2008, said he also wants to see more appearances from cabinet members like Energy Secretary Rick Perry or EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler to explain both their budget and their rulemaking on environmental and science issues. Neither agency head was called before Smith’s committee during his tenure, Foster says.
This is good news. The Trump administration is an embarrassment, but at least the House Science Committee will not be.
Good to have rationality and learning in one of the seats of power.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
There’s still a gap between accepting climate change vs. having the political will to do something about it. The Democrats are funded by the same polluters and greenhouse gas producers that fund the Republicans. It is really not in those corporations’ best interest to see legislation passed curtailing pollution/greenhouse emissions, especially not the strength of the legislation/regulation it will take to reverse the damage we’ve done so far. It remains to be seen if the Democrats will have that kind of will. Magic Eight Ball says, “signs point to no”.
Keep your ears and eyes open on Rep. Dr. Bill Foster of Illinois. No longer the only scientist in the House of Representatives, he is a level headed and very intelligent member of Congress, one might almost say Presidential in his demeanor!
Very good news.
The best satire about climate change denial that I have yet seen is in the past two South Park episodes, “Time to Get Cereal” and “Nobody Got Cereal?” Well worth watching if you are not offended by profanity (people who are offended by profanity offend me) or cartoon blood and violence.
If you are interested in a preview of what’s coming thanks to too much carbon emissions entering the atmosphere and ocean because of the oil industry and Koch brothers funded climate deniers, research has discovered the worst century in the last 2,500 years for life on earth and our species and what caused it.
The Age of Humans
Sixth-Century Misery Tied to Not One, But Two, Volcanic Eruptions
The ancient event is just one among hundreds of times volcanoes have affected climate over the past 2,500 years
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/sixth-century-misery-tied-not-one-two-volcanic-eruptions-180955858/
This is one geologist and earth science teacher who is looking forward to watching this committee operate.
It’s hard for be to sanguine about this. Here’s what I think will happen: House committees will hold hearings and issue subpoenas and very soon members of the executive branch will begin to ignore them. The courts will not intervene because they will consider it a political question. The only recourse Congress will have will be through the appropriations process—since the Senate will continue to approve executive appointees—which funds all the mechanisms of government. And if they bring that process to a halt and we will have more continuing resolutions, government shutdowns and worse legislative gridlock. Republicans will be betting the house that Democrats will get the blame.
I think I just talked myself into supporting Nancy Pelosi as speaker. She might be the only Democrat with the balls to actually muster the troops and stand up to these attacks on constitutional order. (The real problems, as I see them, are Hoyer and Clyburn—they’re the ones who need to step aside.)
Greg Bee, I bet against your dark vision. 🙂
I hope you win big!