The extent to which scepticism over climate science is affecting US politics
was underlined last week, when the Utah House of Representatives passed a
resolution calling for the EPA to reverse a recent endangerment finding on
carbon dioxide, citing a "conspiracy" by climate scientists to exaggerate the
effects of global warming.

The legislation highlights the recent release of emails between scientists
from a hacked server at the University of East Anglia as evidence of an "
organised and ongoing effort" to misrepresent the facts surrounding climate
change.

The partisan Republican resolution, submitted by Utah state Representative
Kerry Gibson and supported by state Senator Scott Jenkins, warns of an adverse
effect on US businesses should the endangerment ruling pass.

"Emails and other communications between climate researchers around the
globe, referred to as "climategate", indicate a well-organised and ongoing
effort to manipulate global temperature data in order to produce a global
warming outcome," the legislation states.

Closely mirroring the arguments put forward by climate sceptics, the
so-called
Climate
Change Joint Resolution goes on to assert that "the "hockey stick" global
warming assertion has been discredited and climate alarmists’ carbon
dioxide-related global warming hypothesis is unable to account for the current
downturn in global temperatures."

"Global governance related to global warming and reduction of CO2 would
ultimately lock billions of human beings into long-term poverty," it added.

The resolution comes just weeks after Representative Gibson
declared
a conflict of interest to the Utah House of Representatives, citing his
dairy herder profession and his ownership of Gibson’s Green Acres, a dairy farm
in Utah with an estimated annual revenue of $340,000 (£217,000).

The dairy farming industry has been vocal in its opposition of carbon
regulation. The Utah Cattlemen’s Association and the National Milk Producers’
Federation joined other agricultural companies as cosignatories on a
20
January letter to Alaskan Senator Lisa Murkowski, supporting her resolution
of disapproval over the Environmental Protection Agency’s endangerment finding
on carbon dioxide.

The endangerment finding makes it necessary for the EPA to regulate carbon
emissions across the US, which would have huge ramifications for the
agricultural sector.

More than five per cent of
Gibson’s
campaign contributions for the 2008 Utah election came from the agricultural
sector, while more than eight per cent came from the energy and natural
resources sector, with notable donors including Pacific Power, Chevron Corp and
the Utah Petroleum Marketers and Retailers Association.

The Utah resolution is the latest in a series of attempts by Republican
lawmakers to use supposed doubts over climate science to campaign against the
administration’s efforts to curb carbon emissions.

Last week, the family of renowned climate sceptic, Oklahoma Senator James
Inhofe, used the current cold snap on the east coast of America to mock former
vice president Al Gore’s warnings over climate change, building an igloo on
Capitol Hill with a sign reading "Al Gore’s New Home".

Senator Inhofe himself emailed the New York Times stating that the
cold weather reinforced doubts that global warming was "unequivocal".

The suggestions from Inhofe and other Republicans that the cold weather
disproved the canon of climate science were swiftly rejected by scientists, not
to mention talk show host Stephen Colbert, who mocked the logic employed by
those who equate weather and climate, observing that "it is dark outside, we can
only assume the sun has been destroyed."

By: Danny Bradbury and James Murray, BusinessGreen