Scientists are disputing a prominent Republican congressman’s claims that federal climate researchers rushed a study to publication in order to advance the Obama administration’s policies. And yesterday a coalition of science groups released a letter decrying the lawmaker’s efforts to force researchers to release emails and other records surrounding the study.

The moves mark the latest developments in a fight that has brewed for nearly 6 months. Representative Lamar Smith (R–TX), chairman of the House science committee, says that whistleblowers within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have complained that their concerns about a major study published by Science this past June were ignored in a “rush to publication.”

The study, led by NOAA researcher Thomas Karl, refuted previous findings that global warming had slowed since 1998. That “pause” has become a chief talking point of skeptics of mainstream climate science, including Smith. And the “timing of [the study’s] release raises concerns that it was expedited to fit the Administration’s aggressive climate agenda,” Smith wrote in an 18 November letter to U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, who oversees NOAA.

But scientists directly involved in the paper and studies underpinning it say Smith is off base.

“To claim that there has been a rush to judgment is actually the polar opposite of what has occurred … In many ways, (the study) is playing catch up” with current science, says climate researcher Peter Thorne of Ireland’s Maynooth University, who chairs the International Surface Temperature Initiative (ITSI), a climate data collaboration. He says the findings line up with other work, including research by the British government’s Met Office, a leading source of climate science.

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The political fight, meanwhile, continues to heat up. In a string of letters, Smith (R-TX) has demanded NOAA turn over internal communications between NOAA scientists related to the study. In the newest letter to Pritzker, he raises the possibility of subpoenaing the commerce secretary.... - ScienceMag.org