Editor, Gazette-Journal:

A recent letter to the editor (“Objective is to throttle America’s energy use,” April 10 Readers Write) presented some enlightening insights into the climate-change denier movement (CCDM). The opening paragraph of the letter provides a version of the CCDM description of the U.S. science enterprise that bears absolutely no resemblance to the enterprise I worked in during my 30-year career at NASA Langley.

The research agendas of federal agencies such as NASA and NOAA are prescribed by the National Academies of Science and all research projects are subject to continuous peer review to ensure quality and relevance to the NAS guidance. At NASA I have had some of the leading climate scientists in the world as professional colleagues and friends for many years and have observed how skeptical and meticulous they are in their research.

This is an enterprise driven by observational data, from which hypotheses are developed and tested leading to theo...