DC Circuit Court rejects Greg Abbott's attempt to argue climategate and science

[Gothmog]

Back in 2007, the SCOTUS ruled that greenhouse gases could be regulated by the EPA under the Clean Air Act. The EPA has adopted some rules in this area and Greg Abbott and some other idiots sued arguing that the science was not conclusive and that the EPA should not rely on the IPCC and other peer reviewed type sources. A fairly conservative panel of the DC circuit rejected Greg's stupidity http://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opinions.nsf/52AC9DC9471D374685257A290052ACF6/$file/09-1322-1380690.pdf

EPA simply did here what it and other decisionmakers often must do to make a science-based judgment: it sought out and reviewed existing scientific evidence to determine whether a particular finding was warranted. It makes no difference that much of the scientific evidence in large part consisted of “syntheses” of individual studies and research. Even individual studies and research papers often synthesize past work in an area and then build upon it. This is how science works. EPA is not required to re-prove the existence of the atom every time it approaches a scientific question.

It is great watching the courts actually use scientific concepts and research and come to the correct conclusion. Greg Abbott is simply too stupid to understand science and this opinion was a good smackdown of the pseudo science pushed by Greg

[sonias]

1. I love a good smack down on stupidity

Texas Climate News 6/27/12

Judges unanimously reject Texas’ challenge of federal greenhouse-gas rules

Texas – and its courthouse allies among industries and other states – took it on the chin Tuesday in a stinging rebuke from a federal appeals court in Washington, which unanimously rejected their challenges against the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulation of heat-trapping, climate-changing greenhouse gases.

Texas, along with Virginia, was a leader of a 14-state group with litigation challenging the rules. Gov. Rick Perry and Attorney General Greg Abbott, both Republicans, have been strongly outspoken in their criticism of the EPA’s climate-protection actions, saying they would badly damage the state’s economy

Abbott and Texas too!

[ashling]

3. The court was simply

speaking truth to stupid (pun intended)

[Gothmog]

2. Treatment of the Climategate claims

Abbott and the idiot AG from Virginia tried to claim that the hacked e-mails in the climate gate non-scandal showed that the science here was not to be trusted. The Court rejected that claim.

On August 13, 2010, EPA issued a denial of the petitions for reconsideration accompanied by a 360-page response to petitions (RTP). Id. at 49,556. It determined that the petitions did not provide substantial support for the argument that the Endangerment Finding should be revised. According to EPA, the petitioners’ claims based on the CRU documents were exaggerated, contradicted by other evidence, and not a material or reliable basis for questioning the credibility of the body of science at issue; two of the factual inaccuracies alleged in the petitions were in fact mistakes, but both were “tangential and minor” and did not change the key IPCC conclusions; and the new scientific studies raised by some petitions were either already considered by EPA, misinterpreted or misrepresented by petitioners, or put forth without acknowledging other new studies. Id. at 49,557–58.

The climategate claims were really very stupid and I am glad that the EPA and the court rejected this stupidity. Abbott and the idiot AG from Virginia were really stupid to try this argument in a court.