US House Republicans launch investigation of climate action group

Science : House Republicans led by Lamar Smith (R-TX) have announced their intention to launch an investigation into a nonprofit climate advocacy group called the Institute of Global Environment and Society (IGES). The organization recently sent a letter to President Obama requesting a criminal investigation of corporations that question the science of climate change. The writers likened industry attempts to deny global warming to the tobacco industry’s cover-up of the detrimental health effects of smoking. The letter sparked much attention , from both sides of the issue. Now Smith, chair of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, has sent a letter to IGES’s president Jagadish Shukla , citing allegations that IGES may have been “participating in partisan political activity” while being “almost fully funded by taxpayer money.” He requests that Shukla “preserve all e-mail, electronic documents, and data” that IGES has created since 2009, although what, exactly, the committee will be investigating has not yet been made clear.