Salon.com > Lamar Smith

House committee will discuss asteroid threat

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 19:07:00 +0000

Early Friday morning a spectacular meteor streaked across the sky and crashed into the Russian Ural Mountains, injuring over 1,000 with sonic blasts that shattered nearby windows. Now, the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, whose members have regularly shown scant regard for scientific consensus, will hold a hearing to address whether and how asteroids might harm the planet.

“Today’s events are a stark reminder of the need to invest in space science,” said committee chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, according to the Hill. Smith referred too to another event on Friday, separate from the meteor crash, in which a 150-foot-long asteroid, Asteroid 2012 DA14, passed within 17,000 miles of Earth.

"Developing technology and research that enable us to track objects like Asteroid 2012 DA14 is critical to our future," Smith said. "We should continue to invest in systems that identify threatening asteroids and develop contingencies, if needed, to change the course of an asteroid headed toward Earth.”

How will the House Science Committee address climate change?

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 22:52:00 +0000

In his inaugural address, President Obama surprised the left by pledging to "respond to the threat of climate change" during his second term, "knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations." But one major hurdle will be Republicans in the House of Representatives, who helped scuttle climate change legislation in 2010, and who will likely force the president to use his executive powers to implement any kind of new regulations.

The House Science Committee is representative of one aspect of this dilemma, and a planned hearing to discuss factors that contribute to climate change could showcase just how many Republicans on the committee are decidedly anti-science. The hearing is still taking shape but will take place sometime in the coming weeks, according to a committee aide.

Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, the committee's chairman, said in a statement that he hopes the hearing will "focus on the facts rather than on a partisan agenda":

GOP’s new House Science farce

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 18:00:00 +0000

Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, will likely be the new Chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, despite his rather skeptical take on the science behind man-made climate change.

From the Huffington Post:

On Tuesday afternoon, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) announced that the Republican Steering Committee had recommended Smith as the new chairman. The full House GOP caucus will vote on all chairmanships Wednesday and is expected to ratify the steering panel's choices.

Smith once accused ABC, NBC and CBS of coverage that was “largely slanted in favor of global warming alarmists.”

“The networks have shown a steady pattern of bias on climate change,” Smith wrote in a statement in 2009. “During a six-month period, four out of five network news reports failed to acknowledge any dissenting opinions about global warming, according to a Business and Media Institute study.”

GOP’s House Science joke

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 19:52:00 +0000

Todd "legitimate rape" Akin may be out of the House next term, but three Republicans vying for House Science Committee chairmanship will help carry the torch of Akin's questionable-at-best relationship with science.

Science Magazine reports that Reps. Lamar Smith, Jim Sensenbrenner and Dana Rohrabachrer are three House Republicans who have so far announced that they are vying for the top spot on the committee, which focuses on science, space and technology.

Rohrabacher, R-Calif., wrote in a statement: "I intend to be a chairman who exemplifies the Republican philosophy that science, technology and innovation offer a pathway to a better, more prosperous future, and solve problems that bureaucracy and rampant government spending cannot."