Harrison Schmitt Withdraws As NM State Energy Boss - Denier Would Not Submit To Background Check

[hatrack]

Former astronaut and state legislator Harrison Schmitt has withdrawn his nomination to become New Mexico's head of the department of Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, the latest setback as the state's new Republican governor tries to reverse her Democratic predecessor's environmental regulations.

Gov. Susana Martinez was handed her first setback late last month, when the state Supreme Court ruled that her attempts to reverse carbon-emission mandates set by a panel appointed by the previous governor, Bill Richardson, were illegal. Martinez also fired all the members of the Environmental Improvement Board that had written the rules.

Martinez had tapped Schmitt, a Harvard-educated geologist and skeptic of global warming who has compared the environmental movement to communism, to run the Energy department. He would have been the point man on loosening environmental regulations on the oil and gas industry imposed by Richardson that the industry contends have caused a sharp drop-off in exploration -- and jobs -- in New Mexico.

But Schmitt would not consent to a mandated background check, and withdrew Thursday afternoon.

EDIT

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2011/02/astronaut-new-mexico-energy.html

[Wilms]

1. Wow! You can't make this Schmitt up.

According to Wiki, "Schmitt is believed to have taken the photograph of the Earth known as The Blue Marble, one of the most widely distributed photographic images in existence."




More from wiki:

Regarding the international scientific consensus on anthropogenic climate change, Schmitt has said that "he CO2 scare is a red herring",<14> that the "global warming scare is being used as a political tool to increase government control over American lives, incomes and decision-making," and that scientists who might otherwise challenge prevailing views on climate change dare not do so for fear of losing funding.<15>

Likewise, in a 2009 interview with conservative talk-radio host Alex Jones, Schmitt asserted a link between Soviet Communism and the American environmental movement: "I think the whole trend really began with the fall of the Soviet Union. Because the great champion of the opponents of liberty, namely communism, had to find some other place to go and they basically went into the environmental movement."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Schmitt

I may have to change my avatar? :wow:

[niyad]

2. how in the HELL did someone this stupid become an astronaut????

ick, you are correct--if our avatars are his pic, may have to change them.

[Confusious]

3. Crazy is no barrier to anything

Not even being a doctor that thinks vaccines shouldn't be injected into anyone, nor did they stop smallpox, nor was the "outbreak of paralysis" in the middle of the century caused by polio.

It's the intelligence, it's the crazy.

[DavidDvorkin]

5. Astronauts are chosen for very specific competence, not intelligence

I dealt with a few of them in Houston, during the Apollo days, and let's just say that I was not impressed by their braininess.

For that matter, I've known quite a few geologists who were very intelligent but who hated the environmental movement and wanted the drilling and mining industries to be largely unregulated and much more aggressive than they already are.

[joshcryer]

9. To be fair to those geologists, most of them *are* employed by mining industries.

It's just a matter of who you are surrounded with. Someone you know loses their contract because of some "nasty environmentalists" a bad vibe is going to happen.

[joshcryer]

8. The Apollo astronauts were picked based on genetics not intelligence.

Same with all of the early astronauts. If you could do a 6 minute mile and have a rest state of 50 beats per second you were going to get picked. Ironically almost all of them were heavy smokers, yet their health was so incredible they could smoke 3 packs a day and it wouldn't affect them.

Huge Scott Carpenter fan, here. The stuff that they were subjected to was incredible.

Sadly the female astronaut candidates actually did better at the tests that early astronauts had to endure, but they weren't picked (women rock at endurance tests!). It wasn't for several decades before women were chosen based on a more broader scope of intelligence, dedication, qualifications, etc.

Still, to this day, most astronaut male candidates are military who have impeccable health. As a female you have a better chance becoming an astronaut by being a scientist or a teacher, men have a better chance going through the military.

[drm604]

4. Schmitt is one of the handful of men who walked on the Moon,

and he turned out like this. :shrug:

What has he been doing since then that he's afraid of a background check?

[Kolesar]

6. Mooning people?

Sex offender??

[joshcryer]

11. Not funny.

[jpak]

7. Maybe he's a LUNA-tic?

:shrug:

[joshcryer]

12. Har. He's a geologist.

Geologists are typically hired by the very corporations that want to tear shit up. His ties to the American Association of Petroleum Geologists is probably where he's worried about being called out.

[joshcryer]

10. Hands are likely a bit dirty from various corporate contracts he's made.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Harrison_Schmitt