Pat Michaels Visit the Photo Place

State climatologist funds an issue

Coal-burning utilities raising money for scientist skeptical of global-warming research.

Date published: 7/28/2006

By SETH BORENSTEIN

AP SCIENCE WRITER

WASHINGTON--Coal-burning utilities are passing the hat for one of the few remaining scientists skeptical of the global-warming harm caused by industries that burn fossil fuels.

Pat Michaels--Virginia's state climatologist, a University of Virginia professor and senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute--told Western business leaders last year that he was running out of money for his analyses of other scientists' global-warming research. So last week, a Colorado utility organized a campaign to help him out, raising at least $150,000 in donations and pledges.

The Intermountain Rural Electric Association of Sedalia, Colo., gave Michaels $100,000 and started the fundraising drive, said Stanley Lewandowski, IREA's general manager. He said one company planned to give $50,000 and a third plans to give money next year.

"We cannot allow the discussion to be monopolized by the alarmists," Lewandowski wrote in a July 17 letter to 50 other utilities. He also called on other electric cooperatives to launch a counterattack on "alarmist" scientists and, specifically, Al Gore's movie "An Inconvenient Truth."

Michaels and Lewandowski are open about the money and see no problem with it. Some top scientists and environmental advocates call it a clear conflict of interests. Others view it as the type of lobbying that goes along with many divisive issues.

"These people are just spitting into the wind," said John Holdren, president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. "The fact is that the drumbeat of science and people's perspectives are in line that the climate is changing."

Frank O'Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch, a Washington advocacy group, said: "This is a classic case of industry buying science to back up its anti-environmental agenda."

Donald Kennedy, an environmental scientist who is former president of Stanford University and current editor in chief of the peer-reviewed journal Science, said skeptics such as Michaels are lobbyists more than researchers.

"I don't think it's unethical any more than most lobbying is unethical," he said. He said donations to skeptics amounts to "trying to get a political message across."

Michaels is best known for his newspaper opinion columns and books, including "Meltdown: The Predictable Distortion of Global Warming by Scientists, Politicians and the Media." However, he also writes research articles published in scientific journals.

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Date published: 7/28/2006