There's a common term in Washington, D.C. — "beltway bandit." A beltway bandit is any of the thousands of consulting and services firms whose essential business model is to exploit political connections to obtain government contracts. A lot of that business depends on having the customer's confidence that any reports resulting from those contracts will do two things. First, the reports will say exactly what the customer agency thinks is in their best interest, and second, that the contracting agency's goals can only be met if it receives substantially increased funding.
The Daily Wire recently reported on the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), which was "established by Congress in 1990 to coordinate federal research and investments in understanding and responding to the forces shaping the global environment, both human and natural, and their impacts on society." The USGCRP is a consortium of no fewer than 15 cabinet departments and agencies, notably including the Smithsonian, NASA, the National Science Foundation, the EPA, and USAID.
The whole program sounds a little odd. Global change? What change? Don't worry. What they mean is “a comprehensive and integrated United States research program which will assist the Nation and the world to understand, assess, predict, and respond to human-induced and natural processes of global change."
What they mean, of course, is climate change, although they break it up into a bunch of categories that are then bundled up in their annual research program, *Our Changing Planet* (the 2025 program is documented here). This, along with ensuring that diversity, equity, and inclusion are major concerns that must be addressed.
USGCRP is awarded about $5 billion in the 2025 budget request to study change. One of USGCRP's major contractors is ICF, LLC, a public company traded on the NASDAQ, which is contracted to produce the National Climate Assessment, which Politico's E&E News calls the "crown jewel" of U.S. climate research.
Okay, so a politically established U.S. government "research project" is contracting with a politically connected consulting firm to produce a politically convenient research report. (Daily Wire couldn't find any member of ICF that contributed to a Republican, but many of them contributed heavily to Democrats.) Honestly, as a news item, this is probably on a par with reporting that the first day of this week has a name ending with a "Y."
What brings it to Politico's attention is that Russell Vought, who heads the Office of Management and Budget, wants to exert greater influence over the National Climate Assessment, USGCRP's major climate report.
This is, of course, a Scientific Crisis. How do we know? Just ask Michael Mann:
The goal of the next administration “is to undermine any policies aimed at accelerating the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy,” said Michael Mann, a climate scientist and director of the Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media at the University of Pennsylvania.
That name may seem familiar. Michael Mann was the original source of the famous "hockey stick," a largely discredited attempt to model global warming based on dendrochronology — estimating temperature variations from tree rings. In related news, Mann was just sanctioned $535,820.21 to be paid to National Review because:
[T]he Court finds, by clear and convincing evidence, that Dr. Mann, through [his lawyers] Mr. Fontaine and Mr. Williams, acted in bad faith when they presented erroneous evidence and made false representations to the jury and the Court regarding damages stemming from loss of grant funding. . . The Court does not reach this decision lightly. ...
They each knowingly made a false statement of fact to the Court and Dr. Mann knowingly participated in the falsehood, endeavoring to make the strongest case possible even if it required using erroneous and misleading information.
Underlying this whole dispute is the actual scientific basis for the notion of human-mediated climate change, something we at PJ Media have reported on in the "Climategate" controversy as long ago as 2009.
In the intervening 15 years, more and more data has come out to question the whole argument. Attempts to limit atmospheric CO2 have had no measurable effect, at a cost of $2 trillion (yes, with a T).
$2T spent... And this is the result. This is Insanity!!! https://t.co/DNzWHvrvNg pic.twitter.com/CXMhHKGfja
— Dr. Matthew M. Wielicki (@MatthewWielicki) April 8, 2025
Reports of the predicted demise of arctic ice appear to have been greatly exaggerated.
Arctic sea ice reached its greatest extent in 21 years in 2024, disproving the long running scam about climate change. Earth did not become a cauldron. AGW was built on doctored science to give an appearance of credibility. But mostly it was all based on dodgy computer models. pic.twitter.com/GtAOhD0PeF
— Peter Clack (@PeterDClack) April 7, 2025
And it appears electric cars are less helpful than advertised.
Still, the USGCRP and its contractors continue to publish reports, and as expected, those reports continue to say that there is a climate crisis — and more funding is needed.
DOGE is finding billions of dollars in wasteful spending, and the Democrats are losing their minds as they realize their gravy train and woke projects are coming to an end.
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