User:Tillman/Alan Carlin

Alan Carlin (born 1937) is an American economist specializing in cost-benefit analysis and the economics of global climate change control. Carlin earned a Ph.D. in Economics at MIT, and a B.S in Physics from Cal Tech. Carlin has been employed at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency since 1971, the year after the agency was founded, and is presently a Senior Operations Research Analyst there.

Carlin is best known for a controversy that arose in June 2009, over the alleged suppression of a report Carlin and a coworker wrote opposing the EPA's Proposed Endangerment Finding for greenhouse gases.

Controversy over EPA report prepared by Carlin

 * Also see Alan Carlin controversy

In June 2009, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a Washington D.C. based think tank, and  Senator James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) claimed that the EPA had suppressed a report authored by Carlin that casts doubt on the existence of global warming and the need to regulate CO2 emissions. Senator Inhofe called for a congressional investigation of the “suppression”.

The EPA responded: "Claims that this individual’s opinions were not considered or studied are entirely false. . . . The individual in question is not a scientist and was not part of the working group dealing with this issue. Nevertheless the document he submitted was reviewed by his peers and agency scientists, and information from that report was submitted by his manager to those responsible for developing the proposed endangerment finding. In fact, some ideas from that document are included and addressed in the endangerment finding. Additionally, his manager has allowed his general views on the subject of climate change to be heard and considered inside and outside the EPA and presented at conferences and at an agency seminar. And this individual was granted a request to join a committee that organizes an ongoing climate seminar series, open to both agency and outside experts, where he has been able to invite speakers with a full range of views on climate science."

In a subsequent investigation by the New York Times, | internal e-mails related to the debate of Dr. Carlin's views were released under the Freedom of Information Act. Carlin was discouraged by his superior at EPA, Dr. Al McGartland, "from filing comments on the proposed finding and told ... that whatever he submitted was not likely to affect the final report, implying that the decision had already been made. After receiving Dr. Carlin’s comments, Dr. McGartland told him that he would not forward them to the office preparing the final report. 'The time for such discussion of fundamental issues has passed for this round,' he wrote on March 17. 'The administrator and the administration has decided to move forward on endangerment, and your comments do not help the legal or policy case for this decision.'A few minutes later, he instructed Dr. Carlin to 'move on to other issues and subjects.' He also told Dr. Carlin not to discuss climate change with anyone outside his immediate office." Dr. Carlin also acknowledged in the article that his report had been produced under short deadline and, as critics have said since, was not fully or cleanly sourced, and there was no restriction on his contact with the media. Dr. McGartland was later “counseled” by his superior “to assure that professional differences are expressed in appropriate and considered ways”.