Moniz fends off climate change skeptics at his congressional debut

By David Kramer

Despite repeated tries, Republicans on two House committees could not dissuade Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz from his assertion that climate change is driven largely by fossil fuel combustion. But Moniz declined multiple invitations by the skeptical lawmakers to assign a specific percentage of global warming to anthropogenic causes.

‘The rise in CO₂ emissions in the last half century is clearly tracked to our global increased energy use,’ Moniz told Representative David McKinley (R-WV) during a 13 June hearing of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. ‘I know how to count. I can count how many CO₂ molecules have gone out from fossil fuel combustion and how many additional CO₂ molecules are in the atmosphere.’

Moniz, who was sworn into office on 21 May, estimated that ’98% of scientists involved in this area’ would agree that human activity is a major component of climate change. But McKinley seemed not to hear. ‘Consensus has a place in politics, but consensus doesn’t have a place in science,’ he replied.

‘It’s indisputable that we are experiencing warming. The pattern of consequences [of rising atmospheric CO₂] is occurring as predicted,’ Moniz told the committee; he added that climate change is accelerating at a faster rate than was expected a few years ago.

At a second hearing, this one before the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee on 18 June, Moniz declined requests from Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) and Vice Chairman Dana Rohrbacher (R-CA) to quantify the amount of climate change attributable to human activities. ‘I don’t know how to put a percentage on it, but the science is clear that it is a major contributor,’ Moniz said. ‘In my scientific view, what we are seeing is consistent with being driven by anthropogenic activities.’

Among other subjects addressed at the hearings, Moniz said the US particle physics community needs a clearer path forward now that it has lost the energy frontier to Europe’s CERN. He suggested that this year’s annual summer ‘Snowmass’ gathering of particle physicists will be critical for developing such a plan.

Moniz said DOE, the Department of Interior, and the Environmental Protection Agency are developing a plan for reducing water usage by the hydraulic fracturing industry. Although agreeing with several lawmakers that the fracking process hasn’t been conclusively linked to groundwater contamination, Moniz cautioned that such pollution is more likely to occur during the conventional drilling of wells to be fracked than thousands of feet below the surface where the fracking process takes place.

Regarding the shuttered Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, Moniz said DOE would abide by the law should courts order the resumption of work there. When asked if he had any reservations about the suitability of the site, Moniz expressed concern that Yucca Mountain is an oxidizing environment ‘and one would prefer a chemically reducing environment.’