Advocacy group: Errors `riddle' Cuccinelli claim on UVa climate papers

Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's latest court filing in his effort to compel the University of Virginia to turn over docu ments related to the research activities of a climate change expert is "riddled with inac curacies," a nonprofit science advocacy group said Thursday.

An analysis of Cuccinelli's filing con ducted by the Washington-based Union of Concerned Scientists discovered at least three significant errors that the group says undercut the attorney general's justification for investigating former UVa climatology researcher Michael Mann.

Cuccinelli's court filing, which was written by Deputy Attorney General Wesley G. Russell Jr., cites the so called "climategate" scandal, in which e mails between climate change researchers ­ including Mann ­ were leaked from the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia in Great Britain and posted online. Some skeptics believe the climate gate e-mails show researchers were manipulating climate change data, whereas others point out that several investigations in the United States and England have found no evidence of data manipulation.

In the filing, Russell wrote, "According to various reviews of the materials, various statements or methods have been attributed to Dr. Mann including the fact that he developed a `trick' in order to `hide the decline' and that he indicated to a research colleague in England that `[a]s we all know, this isn't about the truth at all, it's about plausibly deniable accusations.'" The filing continues, "Respondent admits that, much like the FATA investigation at issue here, governmental bodies in England felt the revelations warranted a governmental investigation."

According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, however, Cuccinelli's filing is citing e-mails that are not referring to Mann’s research. The quoted phrases were actually in an email from scientist Phil Jones,w ho ran the climate research group at the University of East Anglia, in reference to an aspect of Mann’s work. In that same e-mail, Jones uses the words “hide the decline” to describe an aspect of research by scientist Keith Briffa, not Mann.

“If you’re an attorney general investigating Mike Mann, you think you’d at least have the common courtesy of pinning the right accusation on him,” union spokesman Aaron Huertas said.
Cuccinelli’s office declined to comment on the union’s analysis.

“We will address any arguments that the University of Virginia has posed when we file our court brief on July 13,” wrote Brian Gottstein, director of communication for the attorney general’s office,i n an e-mail. “We do not intend to address the arguments of other parties.” Cuccinelli, a Republican and skeptic of climate change,is seeking the documents as part of a probe into the possibility that Mann defrauded Virginia taxpayers when he was awarded four federal and one state research grants totaling $466,000 while working at UVa between 1999 and 2005.

The Union of Concerned Scientists further says that Cuccinelli’s court filing takes the phrases “trick” and “hide the decline” out of context.

Investigations by Factcheck.org, Pennsylvania State University,t he U.K. Parliament and an independent probe by the University of East Anglia all found that the phrases were technical jargon and have taken out of context by climate change skeptics.

The science advocacy group also questions the Cuccinelli filing’s use of Mann’s quote from a climategate e-mail in which he says “[a]s we all know, this isn’t about the truth at all, it’s about plausibly deniable accusations.” The Union of Concerned Scientists said an examination of the full e-mail chain makes it “fairly obvious” that Mann was referring to an inaccurate claims by a blogger about Briffa’s research, not his own.

In its analysis, the Union of Concerned Scientists said the errors as “yet another reason” that Cuccinelli ought to cease his investigation of Mann. UVa’s lawyers argue that Cuccinelli is overstepping his legal authority and that his actions infringe upon academic freedom and chill scientific inquiry and debate.

“At best, Cuccinelli misread the emails,” the organization said. “At worst, he is purposely and knowingly misrepresenting them. Cuccinelli’s inability to get the basic facts straight about the stolen
emails, which he says justify his investigation, is yet another reason he should drop his misguided campaign against Michael Mann.” UVa’s lawyers,who are not paid by taxpayer dollars, declined to comment.

Coincidentally, an investigation by Penn State – which is where Mann now works – wrapped up Thursday and cleared the scientist of all allegations of scientific misconduct that arose from the climategate scandal.

“The Investigatory Committee, after careful review of all available evidence, determined that there is no substance to the allegation" against Mann, the investigators' report said. "More specifically, the Investigatory Committee determined that Dr. Michael E. Mann did not engage in, nor did he participate in, directly or indirectly, any actions that seriously deviated from accepted practices within the academic community for proposing, conducting, or reporting research, or other scholarly activities. The decision of the Investigatory Committee was unanimous."