DOI Scientists Asked to "Gin Up" Emissions Figures

On January 24, 2020, The Guardian reported that the director of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Dr. James Reilly, asked scientists to "gin up" estimates of greenhouse gas emissions from the 2018 wildfires in California. In a series of emails sent between August and November 2018, Dr. Reilly asked Doug Beard, the director of the National Climate Adaptation Science Center, to have scientists "gin up an estimate on the total [carbon dioxide] equivalent releases . . . so far for the current 2 fires in CA?" Dr. Reilly acknowledged that the emissions "would vary based on the types of trees" burnt, but suggested that USGS use the figure that "[m]akes a good story." He also requested that wildfire emissions be compared "against emissions for all energy in US," indicating that the comparison "would make a decent sound bite the Sec[retary of the Interior] could use to put some perspective on it." 

The Guardian report noted that scientists who reviewed the emails "said that at best Reilly used unfortunate language and the department cherry-picked data to help achieve their pro-industry policy goals; at worst he and others exploited a disaster and manipulated the data." Those claims were, however, denied by USGS. A spokesperson for the service told The Guardian that Dr. Reilly's emails were "intended to instruct the subject matter expert to do the calculations as quickly as possible based on the best available data at the time and provide results in clear understandable language that the Secretary could use to effectively communicate to a variety of audiences."