Radical Geological Survey Scientists?

Those USGS folks. Wild-eyed nutjobs, you know? Keen on rocks and all that. Earthquakes, faultlines, platetechtonics. Oh yeah, and probably minerals, fossil fuels, stuff like that. Earth scientists. Gotta keep a tight rein on them.

What do they do at those geology conferences, anyway? Plot sedition with rocks? Don't they need physicists do that?

Election? What election?

Link: Scientists Worried about Bush Clampdown at Publication.

Published on Thursday, December 14, 2006 by the Associated Press

Scientists Worried about Bush Clampdown at Publication

by John Heilprin

The U.S. administration is clamping down on scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey, who study everything from caribou mating to global warming, subjecting them to controls on research that might go against official policy.

New rules require screening of all facts and interpretations by agency scientists. The rules apply to all scientific papers and other public documents, even minor reports or prepared talks, documents show.

Top officials at the Interior Department's scientific arm said the rules only standardize what scientists must do to ensure the quality of their work and give a heads-up to the agency's public relations staff.

"This is not about stifling or suppressing our science, or politicizing our science in any way," Barbara Wainman, the agency's director of communications, said Wednesday.

"I don't have approval authority. What it was designed to do is to improve our product flow."

Some agency scientists, who until now have felt free from any political interference, worry the objectivity of their work could be compromised.

"I feel as though we've got someone looking over our shoulder at every damn thing we do," said Jim Estes, an internationally recognized marine biologist who works for the geological unit.

"And to me that's a very scary thing. I worry that it borders on censorship."

[...]

The changes amount to an overhaul of commonly accepted procedures for all scientists, not just those in government, based on anonymous peer reviews. In that process, scientists critique each other's findings to determine whether they deserve to be published.

From now on, USGS supervisors will demand to see the comments of outside peer reviewers' as well any exchanges between the scientists who are seeking to publish their findings and the reviewers.

President George W. Bush's administration has been criticized for scientific integrity issues. In 2002, the USGS was forced to reverse course after warning oil and gas drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would harm the Porcupine caribou herd. One week later a new report followed, this time saying the caribou would not be affected.