{"id":1930,"date":"2002-04-08T07:05:21","date_gmt":"2002-04-08T12:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=1930"},"modified":"2002-04-08T07:05:21","modified_gmt":"2002-04-08T12:05:21","slug":"bad_science_bad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/04\/08\/bad_science_bad.html","title":{"rendered":"Bad science, bad politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Remember that USGS study out last week about how ANWR drilling would have significant negative impacts on caribou herds and other wildlife?<\/p>\n

Predictably, the Bush Administration reacted with a tizzy. And so nobody was surprised when the USGS rushed out a follow-up report only a week later, indicating, “Nope, no dangers to caribou here.<\/a>“<\/p>\n

But drilling opponents derided the latest review as a desperate act of political intervention by Norton and her aides. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) said he found it \u201chard to believe\u201d that a seven-day review could provide better information than a report surveying the scientific literature about Arctic wildlife from the past 12 years.
\n\u201cThat\u2019s a predictable criticism that simply ignores the facts,\u201d said Interior Department spokesman Eric Ruff. \u201cThis new information demonstrates once again that we can protect wildlife and produce energy in an environmentally responsible way.\u201d<\/p>\n

There’s more to the story than this, however. Reading the article, there may actually be some grounds for criticizing the original USGS report, and the sound bites extracted from it. The original report looked at multiple ANWR drilling scenarios, and found significant adverse affects only in the full development scenario, something that is not currently being proposed by anyone (though it is likely fair to bring up the slippery slope of scope creep once drilling is established).<\/p>\n

And, by the same token, some environmentalists are now willing to criticize the initial report for only looking at calving areas, not area where yearlings spend time.<\/p>\n

To climb up onto a high horse here (which I can do, since I was more than willing to run with those initial sound bites), nobody is particularly covered with glory here.<\/p>\n