Science Agency Eyes Climate Professor’s Taxpayer Funding
A federal science agency is “seriously” interested in reviewing tens of millions in taxpayer-funded grants awarded to a university professor who wants President Obama to prosecute those who don’t share the administration’s view that mankind is changing the world’s climate.The National Science Foundation’s inspector general appears poised to look into Jagadish Shukla’s management of federal grant money, much of it from the science agency itself.The science agency has its own rules and guidelines governing grants, which would be applicable to the millions Shukla, 71, received from the agency.“The longstanding cozy relationship between [government] grant-makers and grantees makes them blind to even the most obvious conflict of interest,” Bonner Cohen, a scholar with a free-market think tank in Washington, told The Daily Signal.Shukla, a professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., led the charge by 20 college professors to urge a federal investigation aimed at scientific skeptics who differ with their views on climate change.At the same time, Shukla, his wife, and his research center were awash in taxpayers’ money, according to an internal audit by the university on which The Daily Signal previously reported.A House panel looking into Shukla’s activities sent related information to Allison Lerner, inspector general for the National Science Foundation.Susan Carohan, a spokeswoman for the Office of the Inspector General, said the agency is “unable to comment publicly” on the Shukla case, citing “privacy requirements.”“As with any correspondence from a congressional committee, we take the concerns expressed very seriously,” Carohan said in an email.>>> Audit Details Climate Change Researcher’s ‘Double Dipping’Cohen, senior fellow with the National Center for Public Policy Research, told The Daily Signal that lax enforcement of existing rules has bedeviled the U.S. government for some time:
Source: Science Agency Eyes Climate Professor’s Taxpayer Funding
