Are the Government's Energy Statistics Reliable Enough?

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During the Bush administration, it became increasingly difficult to get solid data on anything from the government. U.S. Government web sites that had long contained essential, reliable stats on EVERYTYHING -- from economics and employment, to global trade, to national defense and war, to government spending, to public health, to global climate change, to scientific research, to trasportation, and, yes, to energy -- were systematically PURGED of their data, and replaced with shoddy texts of pure Republican political rhetoric and bureaucratic self-adulation.
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In short, it was the Bush administration's POLICY, and PASSION -- shared by Republicans in the courts and Congress -- to deliberately obscure the facts, and conceal the mounting contrary evidence -- to protect their own indefensible ideologies, and the special interests that funded their campaigns. Not since the Reagan Administration came to power had so much statistical information been deliberately removed from ready public view. This policy and passion led directly to this problem with inadequate data -- not only in the energy field -- but in almost every field of government and public interest.
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It's absolutely no wonder, then, that the Republican-ruled government has brought the nation to near-collapse, and that the United States' world leadership in EVERY ONE of these areas of study DECLINED during the years of Republican domination of our government.

Richard Harris of KS 5:51PM April 12, 2009

But it takes expertise to use it but not much expertise to abuse it. Look to those with backgrounds in advanced statistics to tell if it's being used to reveal or to conceal. With the internet you can find people with expertise to critique the methodology. There's the difference between expert witnesses and people shouting from the back of the room after the verdict is handed down.
Apologies to Randy and Siegried if I dismiss your scientifically unsubtantiated cultish belief that climate is beyond humans to change out of hand and express my trust that people who study climate full time know more about it than I do and much much more than you do. I'll keep on trusting the output of the world's leading institutions that study climate over the abundant opinions to the contrary - no matter how popular and sincerely held.

Ken 6:31PM February 27, 2009

It would be a stretch to believe government statistics,there is
such a quote "statistics are there to be made and can be favorably massaged".

Siegfried Roehm of MI 5:49PM February 23, 2009

A tremndeous amount of Carbon Dioxide is contributed by our clueless politicians,aside from the humans and animal world.
There was UN sponsored conference last November in Poznan,Polen
attended by 600 top scientists who debunked those dire computer modeled findings about global warming,Russian findings are that we are heading towards a ice age.Is our great diconnected news
media forgot what constitutes news ,afraid to print certain articles of interest in not hurting Al Gore &compamies feelings?
All those brains who think man can influence mother nature are gravely mistaken .

Siegfried Roehm of MI 5:41PM February 23, 2009

The carbon dioxide global warming theory is so much bunk, I can't stand it. We have this great relationship with plants...we and other animals produce carbon dioxide by breathing in oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide, and plants absorb carbon dioxide and using photosynthesis convert it back to oxygen. Humans production of carbon dioxide is such a minimal contribution to the natural cycle of global warming and globle cooling, it is negligible!

Randy B. of FL 10:06AM February 23, 2009