Youremember theTexas Board of Education,of course. In their creationist heydays, various nationally famous denialistsand local lunatics would both launch attacks on biology, physics and history inmanners that would draw national and even international attention, but the sideof science generally won out in the end. When the State Board of Education‘spublic hearing on new science textbooks for Texas public schoolsfinally began in 2013,the creationists were unable to mount any serious attacks anymore. So alllooked well for a while – until it became clear that oil and gas industryinterests had instead decided to attack the only environmental science textbookup for adoption by the state board.
So duringthe hearings Becky Berger, who identified herself a geologist and oil and gasprofessional, tried to argue that high schools shouldn’t teach environmentalscience classes at all. And during the hearingsshe launched a rabid attack on the environmental science textbook under consideration, claiming that it isfilled with factual errors on topics like pollution potentially caused by frackingand the problem of carbon emissions. The attack was somewhat weakened by thefact that she provided no actual written documentation to back up her claims,and failed to even produce a list of the alleged errors so that the publishercould respond to her claims. Her attacks are discussed in some detailhere.
The state’s official review teams had not identified anyfactual errors in the textbook. Nevertheless, some board members thought thatBerger (who had not been part of the review process) was more credible. Of course,Berger somehow didn’t rememberto tell the board that she is a Republican candidate for the Texas RailroadCommission, which regulates the state’s oil and gas industry, information thatwould have been strangely relevant.
Shewasn’t alone.Throughout the day of the hearings, various wingnutactivists and websites had been urging “grassroots” to call on the state boardto reject the science textbooks up for adoption, especially the environmentalscience textbook. Honorable mention toAlice Linahan of the for-profit political outfit Voices Empower, who argued that thetextbooks were a threat to Texas’ oil/natural gas industry.
Diagnosis:Denialist wingnut. Yes, another one, and Berger is not afraid to use subversionand trickery to get her way.
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