Barton presses Energy Department on climate science emails

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) is pressing Energy Secretary Steven Chu for information about department ties to the U.K. climate institute at the center of the controversy over the infamous hacked climate science emails.

Barton, the top Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) wrote to Chu Friday asking about DoE funding for projects connected to the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia.

Emails among scientists connected to CRU made public last year prompted allegations by climate skeptics -- including Barton and several other Republicans --  that the researchers squelched inconvenient data. But many scientists and Obama administration officials say the emails have done nothing to dent evidence of human-induced global warming.