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The U.S. National Climate Change Assessment: Do the Climate Models Project a Useful Picture of Regional Climate?
Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
Prepared Statement of The Honorable Billy Tauzin Thank you Chairman Greenwood. And, let me also thank you for putting together what promises to be an informative hearing - one that gets to the heart of a controversy that has lingered over this national assessment for a couple of years now. I can tell you I have a pretty good appreciation, as does everybody from the Bayou State, for what Mother Nature can do to us. And she sure does remind us in a variety of ways. The U.S. National Assessment also reminds us about the ways our country may someday be affected by climate change - whether that climate change is natural or influenced by man. But it also conveys some pictures of the future that, as we'll hear this morning, might not be quite what they seem. I look forward to learning more about the use of climate models in the assessment. I'm curious to know whether the inherent uncertainties in these models - uncertainties I understand to be widely accepted within the science community - were properly accounted for when using the models to sketch out the climate change scenarios in this report. I'm also curious to learn whether, if they weren't properly accounted for, whether they undercut what was otherwise a well-intentioned, and potentially useful report. Did the models, in effect, send all this good research focusing on the wrong impacts? Nobody has perfect foresight. But we do have scientific assessments and other tools to help us reduce the odds that our decisions about the future are more than wild guesses. What troubles me, and I believe many Members who must confront difficult and potentially expensive decisions about climate change, is that something that is asserted to be sound science, is not as sound as it was portrayed to be. This creates false assurance where perhaps knowledge of what we don't know would be more useful to guard against risks. It also threatens to undercut public trust in the science policymakers use to make their decisions. We have before us today a distinguished panel of experts who can explain the role of climate modeling in this assessment. They can put matters in proper perspective for us. We have them all here on one panel, too, so that perhaps we can generate some discussion to get further to the bottom of this controversy. I thank you again, Mr. Chairman and yield back the remainder of my time.
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