Skeptic leaves climate office
September 27, 2007

CHARLOTTESVILLE (AP) — Virginia's state climatologist, whose doubts
about global warming and utility-industry funding made him a lightning
rod on climate-change issues, quietly left his position over the summer.

Patrick J. Michaels, who held the position since 1980, remains as a
part-time research professor on leave at the University of Virginia,
reported Joseph C. Zieman, chairman of the school's Department of
Environmental Sciences, to the Daily Progress of Charlottesville.

Mr. Michaels has been a leading skeptic of global-warming theories.
Although he thinks global warming is real and influenced by humans, he
contends it is caused primarily by natural forces.

The administration of Gov. Tim Kaine, a Democrat, asked Mr. Michaels
last year to refrain from using his title when conducting non-state
business because of fears his views would be perceived as an official
state position.

The governor's office said Mr. Michaels, appointed by Gov. John N.
Dalton, a Republican, was not a gubernatorial appointee, contending that
the climatology office became UVa.'s domain in 2000.

Mr. Michaels, 57, called his resignation a sad result of the fact that
his state climatologist funding had become politicized, compromising his
academic freedom.

"It's very simple," he said. "I don't think anybody was able to come to
a satisfactory agreement about academic freedom."

George Allen, a friend of Mr. Michaels, twice intervened on matters
involving funding for Mr. Michaels' office, once as governor and again
as a U.S. senator.

In 1994, Mr. Allen restored a cut of more than $100,000 to Mr. Michaels'
office that was proposed by his predecessor, Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, a
Democrat. As a senator eight years later, Mr. Allen, a Republican,
rescued Mr. Michaels' office from other proposed cuts that Mr. Michaels
said would have wiped out his funding.


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Democrats, top scientists and environmental advocates also maintain that
Mr. Michaels' reliance on large utility company contributions for
private research was a conflict of interest.

Last summer, the Associated Press reported that a Colorado utility
raised at least $150,000 in donations and pledges to help Mr. Michaels
analyze global-warming research by other scientists.

In July, Mr. Michaels withdrew as an expert witness for the auto
industry in a high-profile case in federal court in Vermont rather than
disclose his funding sources. He said he was hired by the Automobile
Manufacturers Association and that his donors had information that they
wanted to remain confidential.
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"Global warming science is a controversial area, and those who do not
believe that anthropogenic [human-caused] greenhouse gas emissions will
inevitably result in extreme climatologic outcomes are often subject to
public attack," Mr. Michaels stated in an affidavit to the court.
(emphasis added - T.S.)

The state climatologist's office provides information and conducts
research on the effects of weather and climate on economic and
ecological systems.

University spokesman Fariss Samarrai said Jerry Stenger, who has worked
in the climatology office for more than two decades, assumed Mr.
Michaels' duties, but not the title of state climatologist.

Mr. Michaels said he will continue his position at the
libertarian-conservative Cato Institute in the District, where he works
while on leave from UVa.

"I feel I can speak more freely," he said.