For over a year outsiders seemed to expect that Professor William Happer, a physicist from Princeton, would be the Trump Administration’s Science Adviser. He had previously served as a (lower case) science adviser in the George H. W. Bush and Clinton Administrations, and could not be accused of being sympathetic to the Obama Administration on climate issues.
But this is not what happened in the end. Dr. Kelvin Droegemeier was nominated as Trump’s Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, perhaps because his views on the ever-sticky climate issue were largely unknown and possibly pro-Climate Industrial Complex (CIC). This is unlike Professor Happer’s strong skeptic stance over many years and public disagreement with the Clinton Administration with Vice President Al Gore. So what happened to Prof. Happer? In the end he was appointed this week to a newly created position as the senior director of the National Security Council for emerging technologies.
This outcome suggests to me that the Trump Administration is trying to avoid an open confrontation with the CIC, just as they have done in the case of the Endangerment Finding, which they have chosen not to reexamine, and the proposed but so far not initiated (but much discussed) red-blue team confrontation. They probably think that this approach will improve their chances of reelection in 2020 and a favorable outcome of the 2108 midterms.
I doubt that this is the case. The climate alarmists will not support the Trump Administration no matter what it does. What represents good and bad science should be determined by the scientific method, not what might help the party in power in the next election. This would have been more likely if Professor Happer had been appointed Science Adviser.
via Carlin Economics and Science
September 8, 2018 at 06:04AM
Iowa Climate Science Education 