Texas Commission on Environmental Quality

FARTS IN THE WIND from HUSTLER Magazine

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has caused a big stink thanks to accusations that it censored information about global warming in a report about Galveston Bay. This included an article written by the Houston Advanced Research Center’s John B. Anderson, a professor of oceanography at Rice University. Anderson says the state agency deleted all references to climate change and sea-level rise. “I don’t think these are contentious points—that’s the sad part,” he told the New York Times. “This is information that needs to be out there for the general public, for schoolteachers when they teach their kids.” After a Texas lawmaker voiced concerns about watering down the report “without a valid explanation or alternative,” TCEQ spokesman Andy Saenz countered, “Why should we include questionable information we don’t agree with?” He failed to mention that the panel’s members are appointed by Governor Rick Perry, who derides global warming as “an unproven scientific theory.” We agree with Anderson’s assessment: “It’s all politics.”