US interior secretary's school friend crippling climate research, scientists say

[demmiblue]

Source: The Guardian

Prominent US climate scientists have told the Guardian that the Trump administration is holding up research funding as their projects undergo an unprecedented political review by the high-school football teammate of the US interior secretary.

The US interior department administers over $5.5bn in funding to external organizations, mostly for research, conservation and land acquisition. At the beginning of 2018, interior secretary Ryan Zinke instated a new requirement that scientific funding above $50,000 must undergo an additional review to ensure expenditures “better align with the administration’s priorities”.

Zinke has signaled that climate change is not one of those priorities: this week, he told Breitbart News that “environmental terrorist groups” were responsible for the ongoing wildfires in northern California and, ignoring scientific research on the issue, dismissed the role of climate change.
Don't blame wildfires on climate change – it's environmentalists' fault, says Zinke
Read more

Steve Howke, one of Zinke’s high-school football teammates, oversees this review. Howke’s highest degree is a bachelor’s in business administration. Until Zinke appointed him as an interior department senior adviser to the acting assistant secretary of policy, management and budget, Howke had spent his entire career working in credit unions.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/17/interior-secretarys-school-friend-crippling-climate-research-scientists-say

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. Zinke has no evidence for his lies, but it won't stop him. Neither will RubleCons in Congress. . .nt

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Steve Howke:

https://projects.propublica.org/trump-town/staffers/steven-howke

U.S. Interior Department to put academic, nonprofit grants through political review

By Michael Doyle, E&E NewsJan. 9, 2018 , 2:55 PM

The U.S. Interior Department will now funnel certain grants through a political screening intended to ensure the federal dollars "better align" with the administration's "priorities," according to a newly revealed memo.

The move invests considerable power in a senior Interior Department adviser named Steve Howke, who will be reviewing grants including those above $50,000 for universities, land acquisition purposes and nonprofits that can engage in advocacy.
....

Howke, identified in the memo as the new grant reviewer, has until now had a very low profile. His only appearance on the Interior Department's website is his inclusion on an {organizational chart from February}.
....

[Sophia4]

3. I'm thinking of taking pictures of my avocado trees dying of thirst, with brown leaves

although we water them regularly, as evidence of the climate crisis to the Interior Department.

But I doubt it could change their minds.

It's very sad. All Americans will pay for their blindness to reality.

[Bayard]

4. "Ensure federal dollars "better align" with the administration's "priorities,"

Ignorant, fascist bastards! The administration's policy is all about rape and pillage, consequences be damned.

[SkyDaddy7]

5. Americans have no fucking clue...

How bad this hurts us as a country to have stupid fucking meatheads in charge of America’s science programs & research! It is literally nauseating to think about!!

[Haggis for Breakfast]

6. Let me see if I have this straight

While Zinke is busy destroying our national parks and wildlife areas, he's got his shower-buddy and fellow towel-snapper from high school deciding who among our most promising scientists gets federal grant money ?

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