Petition to Cease Dissemination of the National Assessment on Climate Change
This document follows and incorporates by reference: 1) the information presented the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), Inhofe, et al. v. Bush (DC DC CV 00-02383), the complaint of which is presently withdrawn without prejudice expressly on the basis of OSTP assurances that the National Assessment does not represent a product of the federal government; 2) correspondence sent by CEI to Assistant Secretary of Commerce Dr. James R. Mahoney and Under Secretary of Commerce Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr (18 October 2002) requesting that the US Global Change Research Change Project’s (USGCRP) National Assessment Synthesis Team undergo housecleaning to remove members responsible for the unlawfully produced, incomplete and FDQA-noncompliant National Assessment on Climate Change; and 3) CEI’s Comments on NOAA/USCCSP’s “Strategic Plan for the Climate Science Program” (17 January 2003)(the latter two are attached).
Because “[t]he Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) provide oversight [of USGCRP] on behalf of the Executive Office of the President” (http://www.usgcrp.gov/usgcrp/GCRPINFO.html), OSTP retains responsibility for ensuring the compliance of USGCRP data, particularly the “National Assessment on Climate Change”, with FDQA requirements. “One of the major activities for the USGCRP during the last several years has been the U.S. National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change. Assessment of the potential consequences of global change was mandate [sic] by Congress in the authorizing legislation of the USGCRP. OSTP requested the USGCRP to undertake this assessment, and played a key role in defining the assessment process, which included a series of regional workshops, USGCRP sponsorship of regional and sector vulnerability analyses, and creation of a National Synthesis Report, which will be published in late 2000” (http://www.ostp.gov/Environment/html/env_projBAK.html)(see also, e.g., “NSCTC Annual Report”, at http://www.ostp.gov/NSTC/html/annualrpt98.html).
Pursuant to the justification presented in the cited litigation and attachments, and incorporated by reference in this Request, the Competitive Enterprise Institute requests correction of information, under Section 515 of Public Law 106-554, seeking OSTP comply with the FDQA by immediately ceasing dissemination of any form of the flawed data specifically described herein, and all conclusions or assertions based upon same, which is most effectively obtained by ceasing dissemination of the document formally if inaccurately styled as meeting the requirements as a first statutorily required “Climate Change Impacts in the United States: The Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change”, or National Assessment (NACC).
