“We have become increasingly concerned that EPA and many other agencies and countries have paid too little attention to the science of global warming. EPA and others have tended to accept the findings reached by outside groups, particularly the IPCC and the CCSP, as being correct without a careful and critical examination of their conclusions and documentation.” So begins a report written not by an outside critic, but by two employees at the Environmental Protection Agency itself: Alan Carlin and John Davidson, researchers at EPA’s National Center for Environmental Economics. Yes, there are environmental skeptics who work at the EPA, and we know it thanks to the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Last week CEI obtained a series of e-mails showing that in mid-March Carlin’s bosses put a gag order on him and attempted to bury a report by Carlin and Davidson. The e-mails show that Carlin’s bosses were afraid of forwarding the report because it would undercut the case for regulating greenhouse gas emissions. At the time, EPA was finishing work on a finding that called for regulating greenhouse gases emissions under the Clean Air Act.

Now the 98-page report by Carlin and Davidson has also been revealed to the public, too. A good rule of thumb is if the government doesn’t want you to know something, it’s probably worth knowing. Before the Senate considers the costly global warming legislation just passed by the House (which would supplant any regulations under the Clean Air Act), senators should take the time to read what Carlin and Davidson wrote.