It appears as though those silly global warming deniers aren’t welcome in the debate on sea levels in North Carolina. The Coastal Resources Commission appoints a “Science Panel” that produces a “Sea Level Report” that is intended to be used for policy purposes. The last time around, in 2010, they said Blowing Rock would soon be under water (I exaggerate slightly—they said the sea would rise 39 inches by 2100).
In 2012, the state legislature passed a law that said the projection was too shaky to be used for planning purposes until a new report is issued in 2016. But the Commission is happy with restricting the Science Panel to the global warming zealots who produced the first report—and they’re making sure that nobody likely to raise any objections will be appointed by leaving three positions on the Panel unfilled.
In a wonderfully Orwellian statement, the Commission’s chair, Frank Gorham, said, “I want to be known as trying to be fair and to have respect for people’s opinions and the process”—as the reason he was not appointing any voices dissenting from the Pane;’s environmental radicalism.
