November 5, 2015

Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee is leading an investigation into the validity of a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) study claiming that a previously believed pause in global warming was in fact incorrect, and that the rate of warming over the past 15 years has been the same as the rest of the 20^th century.

Chairman Smith sent a letter to NOAA Administrator Kathryn Sullivan explaining that he believed the agency had not submitted enough data on the recent study; he also subpoenaed NOAA on October 13, 2015 asking for more documents and email communications related to the re-analyzation study. NOAA contends that they have already provided the panel with the correct amount of data supporting the study.

The climate science study, led by Tom Karl, Director of the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, consisted of global temperatures collected by the agency showing that the pause in global temperature never occurred. The study utilized new technologies correcting raw data for various biases and included ocean temperatures recorded from buoys. In his letter, Chairman Smith states that NOAA never fully explained how the study interpreted the data.

Sources: eenews, house.gov