EPA chief: We take threat against global warming skeptic seriously

ST reader Sev brought this to our attention in the comments section of a prior post earlier this week:

During today’s hearing, Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), Ranking Member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, confronted Stephen Johnson, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), with a threatening e-mail from a group of which EPA is currently a member. The e-mail threatens to “destroy” the career of a climate skeptic. Michael T. Eckhart, president of the environmental group the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE), wrote in an email on July 13, 2007 to Marlo Lewis, senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI):

“It is my intention to destroy your career as a liar. If you produce one more editorial against climate change, I will launch a campaign against your professional integrity. I will call you a liar and charlatan to the Harvard community of which you and I are members. I will call you out as a man who has been bought by Corporate America. Go ahead, guy. Take me on.”

In a July 16, Washington Times article, Eckhart confirmed that he did indeed write the email.

Scary, hm?

As an update to that story via Brit Hume’s Political Grapevine:

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency says he will investigate a threatening letter sent to a global warming skeptic by the head of a group advocating the use of renewable energy.

The Washington Times reports American Council on Renewable Energy President Michael Eckhart wrote to Competitive Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow Marlo Lewis β€” “It is my intention to destroy your career as a liar. If you produce one more editorial against climate change, I will launch a campaign against your professional integrity.”

The EPA is a member of ACORE β€” and so are several other government agencies. Eckhart told the Times he apologizes to all who were offended by his choice of words, and says the letter was a private communication in the context of what he called “personal combat and jousting.”

And threats and blackmail …

Prior:

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