Comment by jyounker

The Republican party has been trying to squash inconvenient science for a long time.

One of the signature pieces of Gingrich's "Contract With America" in 1995 was the elimination of the Office of Technology Assessment. The office had the unfortunate duty to communicate well researched facts, and these facts contradicted conservative policy positions. (OTA: The planet is warming. R: No it's not. Exxon says it's not.) So the OTA had to go.

There are a nearly endless list of these things over the last 30 years.