For nearly a year, EPA administrator Scott Pruitt pushed for a public debate on the science of climate change that would be structured like the “red team-blue team” exercises of the military. White House chief of staff John Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general, squashed the idea as ill-conceived, reports the New York Times.
Kelly and other top officials saw Pruitt’s proposal as politically risky and not well thought out, said the Times, and “when Mr. Pruitt sought to announce it last fall, they weighed in to stop him.” At a meeting in mid-December, a Kelly deputy “made it clear that his boss considered the idea ‘dead’ and not to be discussed further.” White House and administration officials felt a science debate” — particularly on an issue as politically charged as the warming of the planet — could become a damaging spectacle, creating an unnecessary distraction from the steps the administration has taken to slash environmental regulations enacted by former President Barack Obama.”
The Times said the disagreement over the debate reflected a broader split “over whether and how directly to attack climate change science itself … The fundamental science, that man-made pollution is overwhelmingly responsible for warming temperatures and rising sea levels, is widely accepted among mainstream scientists. That science formed the basis of a key 2009 E.P.A. decision known as the endangerment finding, which declares that climate change is a threat to human health and welfare. That finding is the legal backbone for almost all federal climate policy and requires the government to regulate greenhouse gas emissions in some manner. A government critique of climate science could lay the groundwork for challenging the endangerment finding in court.”