Wednesday, November 02, 2011

A little money goes a long way

Scott Mandia has set up a defense fund for climate science which, yesterday had a huge victory. After a hearing in the never ending attach on Mann, Va Judge Gaylord Finch held that

a. Mann could intervene in the suit seeking his correspondence against UVa and
b. He would reconsider his earlier decision to grant access to Michael Mann's Emails before the court decided if they should be made public.

More at Scott's site, the Guardian, and information about the suers of record, ATI

The American Tradition Institute was launched in Colorado in February 2009 as the nonprofit Western Tradition Institute, changing its name to ATI last year. WTI, in turn, was a spinoff of the Western Tradition Partnership (WTP) — a 501(c)(4) political advocacy group backed by energy interests.

“They are offshoots from the same poisoned roots,” said Peter Fontaine, the attorney representing Michael Mann in the ATI lawsuit.

WTP, which has since changed its name to American Tradition Partnership (logo above), describes itself as a “no-compromise grassroots organization dedicated to fighting the radical environmentalist agenda.” It was first registered as a Colorado nonprofit in 2008 by Scott Shires, a Republican operative with a checkered past: He was fined over $7,000 for campaign finance violations in Colorado, pleaded guilty in a scheme to fraudulently obtain federal grants for developing alternative fuels, and was tied to an illegal gambling ring. WTP was active on behalf of oil and gas industry interests in the 2008 commissioners race in Garfield County, a center of Colorado’s energy industry

Perhaps the churnalist of record and the not quite statistician should do their jobs rather than tut tutting about how people who recognize climate change when they see it should stop drinking soda and releasing CO2?

18 comments:

Rattus Norvegicus said...

ATP is causing trouble here in MT by suing to get the long standing ban on corporate funding for state candidates overturned. Long standing in this case means about 100 years...

J Bowers said...

@ Rattus, are ATP 'American Tradition Partnereship'?

Rattus Norvegicus said...

yep.

dhogaza said...

Ah, yes, western traditions, like the Sheep Shooting Associations formed by big-time cattle ranchers ...

The letter to The Oregonian included in the link above pretty much sums up traditional western attitudes to law and justice ...

Anonymous said...

Sounds like someone should send for Glenn Ford!

Cymraeg llygoden

Brian said...

Good to see it, but it's only a procedural victory. They still have to agree as to how to review the exempt emails.

I still can't believe the judge wanted ATI's lawyers to see the exempt records when the lawyers and the clients were one and the same.

J Bowers said...

At least it makes it more expensive for the likes of ATI to harrass scientists who are just doing their jobs.

Rattus Norvegicus said...

I highly recommend reading these two links. VERY entertaining!

http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/scientific_integrity/ATI-UVA-support-memorandum.pdf
http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/scientific_integrity/ATI-UVA-Kast-affidavit.pdf

Anonymous said...

Congratulations to Michael Mann and his legal team.

How did an organisation supposed to be dedicated to the Freedom of the Individual Conscience end up persecuting a lone scientist?

These guys have fossil fuel corporate moolah ... there may be more legal moves yet. Their end game is to leak juicy bits of e-mails to Rupert Murdoch's "news" organisations.

Toby

J Bowers said...

Rattus -- "I highly recommend reading these two links. VERY entertaining!"

My word, just what has Dr. Schnare been getting up to on the Federal dime?

WVhybrid said...

I'm glad I helped out with the fund. Thanks for letting us know the results.

dhogaza said...

J Bowers ...

"My word, just what has Dr. Schnare been getting up to on the Federal dime?"

Among other things, lying to UVa's attorney ...

Actually, it's not on the taxpayers dime, however it appears he failed to get proper clearance from the EPA to take action on his own time, and lied about it.

J Bowers said...

Dhogaza, are you sure? Page 9 (26).

EliRabett said...

Reminds Eli of Andrew Langerrrrrr (sci.environment refugees will remember)

Rattus Norvegicus said...

From the two links (the submission and the affidavit) it does appear as thought he was working for ATI on government time. This may explain why he was terminated on the first of October.

dhogaza said...

J Bowers said...
Dhogaza, are you sure?

Huh, I thought I posted shortly after, citing the egg on my face (as I read further) ... he was lying about not doing anything on the government dime. Must've not filled in the captcha or something.

But, yes, you're absolutely right. I'm not sure, or actually, I *am* sure but in the opposite sense, now!

Mia culpa!

David B. Benson said...

Ph, the scandal of it all!

J Bowers said...

http://climscifoi.blogspot.com/2011/11/ati-uva-reopening-review-of-exempted.html

"Schnare, it turns out, was actually a federal civil servant with EPA(!) until a few months ago. According to Nature News, he misrepresented himself in communications with UVa, furthermore, he was not granted permission to engage in outside activity for ATI by his federal employers. This is not surprising either, since ATI has worked on lawsuits associated with challenging the EPA Endangerment Finding which would be a conflict of interest - and doubly so for a lawyer. Thus work that Schnare did as a litigator for ATI while on EPA payroll was a clear violation of Federal ethics rules."

Ooh-err.