■ 25 May 2011 | 5:17 PM
U.Va. to release climate change papers to interest group
Under the terms of a legal agreement, the work papers of a former University of Virginia climate change professor will be provided to an advocacy group that requested them earlier this year under state open records law.
The agreement was reached Tuesday in Prince William County Circuit Court.
The American Tradition Institute and Del. Bob Marshall, R-Prince William, seek e-mails and other files of noted climate change scientist Michael Mann that are held by the university.
Mann's conclusions have been heralded as proof of climate change by some, and dismissed as faulty science by skeptics.
For more than a year, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has been after similar documents from U.Va. as part of an investigation into possible fraud related to taxpayer-funded grants awarded during Mann's tenure.
The institute initially asked for the records in January.
Officials claim U.Va. has been slow in responding to that request, even after the school was paid $4,000 to cover document reproduction costs.
University officials counter that they negotiated with the institute and have been clear that the process of retrieving the documents is time consuming.
The institute recently asked a court to intervene. The agreement between the parties specifies that U.Va. is to turn over all documents within 90 days of the order issued Tuesday.
(About one-fifth of the roughly 9,000 pages of documents sought have been provided to the institute.)
Cuccinelli's pursuit of those records is ongoing in court.
UPDATE: A U.Va. spokeswoman said the judge who heard the matter expects to issue a ruling by June 15.
An unresolved issue before the court is whether state law allows the university to be reimbursed for the cost of reviewing documents before they are released or whether the university must absorb it.
COMMENTS ADVISORY: Users are solely responsible for opinions they post here; comments do not reflect the views of The Virginian-Pilot or its websites. Users must follow agreed-upon rules: Be civil, be clean, be on topic; don't attack private individuals, other users or classes of people. Read the full rules here.
- Comments are automatically checked for inappropriate language, but readers might find some comments offensive or inaccurate. If you believe a comment violates our rules, click the report violation link below it.
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
Twitter
Google
Yahoo
Amerkun Tradition Institute - an advocacy group??? thats funny.
The group's director was previously with The Heartland Institute.
As for Heartland, "they worked with Philip Morris to question the link between secondhand smoke and health risks. PM used Heartland to distribute tobacco-industry material, and arranged for the Heartland Institute to publish "policy studies" which summarized Philip Morris reports...."
In other words, paid corporatist prostitute shills. The ATI's director Paul Chesser has ZERO scientific traiing. He's a hired propagandist.
So what you have are SCIENTISTS versus paid SHILLS with NO scientific training. Sadly, the VA Pilot once again feels compelled to present this ruse as two honest parties with differing opinions. "Some say the earth is flat, others disagree." No mas.
thanks for the info TR
on the Heartland Inst. Climate scientists are indeed like early researchers who linked tobacco to cancer & endured vilification before time and the scientific method eventually bore out their claims.Is any other climate research that has been as thoroughly debated & vetted than that original hockey stick research? If it didn't hold up in the scientific community, surely we would have known by now from the scientists themselves. Truth is the climate contrarians just won't let go. Cuccinelli is abusing his current subpoena powers under Virginia law,using his power to insert himself into issues such as health care,carbon emissions, abortion clinics, gay rights...his party's usual suspects. Limited government? Spare me the hypocrisy..