Senators plan to investigate National Science Foundation climate change grants
A group of senators is calling for an investigation into National Science Foundation (NSF) grants designed to educate meteorologists about climate change, saying the $4 million program has moved beyond science and into political action.
photo/ Pete Linforth
Sens. Ted Cruz (Texas), Rand Paul (Ky.), James Lankford (Okla.) and Jim Inhofe (Okla.) requested the probe in a letter Wednesday to the NSF inspector general, saying the grants are “not science – it is propagandizing.”
The letter states that the foundation has “issued several grants which seek to influence political and social debate rather than conduct scientific research.” The senators say that issuing the grants might violate the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from taking public political stances, as well as NSF’s mission.
The federal program, called Climate Central, has been in place for six years and has taught more than 500 meteorologists about global warming.
Climate Central CEO Ben Strauss pushed back against the GOP senators’ claims.
“Climate Central is not an advocacy organization, and the scientific consensus on climate change is not a political viewpoint,” Strauss said in an email to NBC News.
Several top Trump administration officials, including Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, have cast doubt on the scientific community’s consensus regarding the causes of climate change.
“Having learned that meteorologists in general remained inconclusive regarding climate change, this coalition then returned to the NSF and secured an additional $2,998,178 to expand ‘the reach’ of a political advocacy group . . .,” the senators wrote in their letter. They said NSF’s oversight of the program was “egregious” because the agency “saw fit to fund this project designed to ‘recruit’ experts to a position they did not come to of their own accord as meteorologists.”
