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Liebernan probes U.S. climate research row

WASHINGTON, June 20 (UPI) -- Sen. Joseph Lieberman is probing allegations of U.S, government censorship in global warming research, GovExec.com reported this week.

Sen. Lieberman, D-Conn., the ranking member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee of the U.S. Senate has asked two federal offices to investigate media reports of agencies censoring climate change-related research and reports.

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In letters last week, Lieberman asked officials at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to investigate the role of official or unofficial guidance from the White House in the publication of scientific findings related to climate change, GovExec.com said.

In a letter to OSTP Director John Marburger, Lieberman cited recent media allegations of censorship at the Environmental Protection Agency, Forest Service, National Aeronautics and Space Administration and NOAA.

"The occurrence of allegations across four different government agencies raises the possibility that negative signals regarding scientific openness, particularly as regards climate change, might be traveling from a central source of authority to multiple executive branch departments," Lieberman wrote.

Lieberman, along with Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chairwoman of the Senate government oversight committee, raised questions about censorship of scientists at NASA that led to the recent admission by the agency that a request to interview its top climate scientist had been improperly refused, the report said.

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Ben Fallon, assistant to the director for legislative affairs at the White House science office, acknowledged receipt of Lieberman's letter and underlined that agencies set individual scientific communications policies.

"Dr. Marburger discussed the issue of communications policy with agency chief scientists shortly after the NASA incidents, and we continue to monitor agency practices," Fallon told GovExec.com. "At this time, we have not seen evidence that the situation requires the development of a mandatory one-size-fits-all policy government-wide."

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