Ethan Barton of the Daily Caller reports that the government has yet to review years of manipulated energy-related data linked to a federal agency.
A U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) program that allowed important energy-related data to be manipulated improperly for nearly two decades hasn’t been independently reviewed in 17 years, according to documents obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation.
Survey officials promised in March, 2015, they would undergo such a review, but it still hasn’t been done.
A Lakewood, Colo., lab, which was part of the agency’s Energy Resources Program (ERP), manipulated the data from 1996 to 2014. The effects of the distorted data are as yet unknown, but “will be serious and far ranging,” the Department of the Interior’s Inspector General (IG) reported in 2014.
Officials in charge of ERP should request “an outside, reputable organization to periodically review ERP’s overall mission and operations,” the IG subsequently recommended. …
… The 18 years of data manipulation was carried out by two analysts, first from 1996 to 2008, then from 2008 to 2014. The first analyst resigned during an investigation. USGS refuses to reveal who, if anyone, has been punished for either incident.
The analysts manipulated calibrations when studying various samples provided to the lab regarding a range of energy-related topics, including uranium in the environment and U.S. coal resources. The distortion affected an estimated $108 million worth of research, according to the IG.
USGS knew about the manipulation long before it was stopped, and waited even longer to tell the lab’s customers, TheDCNF previously reported. Much of the backup data was also destroyed.
