Judge Orders Bush to Release Global Warming Reports

On Wednesday,a federal judge in San Francisco ordered that the Bush Administration release two reports on Global Warming after being sued to do so by environmentalists.
The first report is a federal research plan, which is basically the guiding force in future research on climate change. This report was supposed to be released in 2006, but the Bush Administration refused to release the report.
The second report is a national assessment which gives the latest research data and projected impacts on environment, economy and health. This report should have been released in 2004. (Just a quick note: This national assessment is supposed to be released every four years by the White House. To date, the Bush Administration has NEVER released such a report.)
The Administration used the commonly-known "We know what's best for the country, and therefore have discretion over how and when (not to mention IF) these reports should be released.
It didn't work.

"The defendants are wrong," Armstrong wrote in the 38-page ruling."Congress has conferred no discretion upon the defendants as to whenthey will issue revised Research Plans and National Assessments."

So the Judge has set deadlines for the research and national assessment plans to be released next year on March 1 and May 31 respectively. Time will tell if the White House actually releases any documents, but I predict an extension filing followed by another extension filing until January 2009.
A question for the readers out there: Does it make anyone else giddy to hear the Bush Administration referred to as "the Defendants?" I sense that this might be a common name for Bush and his cabinet in the upcoming years.

Comments

[Tom Disouza]

Over the 10-year period as a whole, climate continues to warm and 2014 is likely to be 0.3 deg C warmer than 2004. The overall trend in warming is driven by greenhouse gas emissions but this warming effect will be broadly cancelled out over the next few years by the changing patterns of the ocean temperatures. Want more information click on www.LifeOfEarth.Blogspot.com

[granny]

"the research and national assessment plans to be released next year on March 1 and May 31 respectively"

Why so much time?