“What did they say, a hundred years ago, when they burned cow hides?”
“Carbon dioxide!” get it… “carbon theoxhide”…. Uttered by David Q.’s ten year old son in comment to blog post at http://tinyurl.com/ydl8xdq. (just couldn’t resist)

Not only does David’s son get it, but so too, the US Department of Energy Office of Inspector General.   Many of us with past exposure to the DOE know of research stimulus grants to lots of folks in energy and climate research.  So it was not too surprising to see the links to the US DOE Savannah River Site causing Monday’s litigation hold on all related notes, documents, and correspondence in that realm.  This author has used the services of the IG before;  they are serious dudes.

This author’s first inkling of the memo was a drop in on the British Telegraph blog by James Delingpole.  He shows the meat of the DOE order and traces the linkages back to East Anglican University’s Climate Research Unit in both correspondence and funding.   Looks like it may be a long winter for many climatologists.

As the Chinese curse says:  “May you live in interesting times.”

The Memo:

“December 14, 2009

DOE Litigation Hold Notice

DOE-SR has received a “Litigation Hold Notice” from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) General Council and the DOE Office of Inspector General regarding the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in England. Accordingly, they are requesting that SRNS, SRR and other Site contractors locate and preserve all documents, records, data, correspondence, notes, and other materials, whether official or unofficial, original or duplicative, drafts or final versions, partial or complete that may relate to the global warming, including, but not limited to, the contract files, any related correspondence files, and any records, including emails or other correspondence, notes, documents, or other material related to this contract, regardless of its location or medium on which it is stored. In other words, please preserve any and all documents relevant to “global warming, the Climate Research Unit at he University of East Anglia In England, and/or climate change science.”

That should slow some things down a bit.