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How do you annoy a scientist? Officials in Texas鈥檚 environmental agency have a sure-fire way of doing so: ask researchers to write a report on the state鈥檚 Galveston bay 鈥� and then edit it to remove any reference to rising sea levels.
The State of the Bay 2010 report has been delayed for a year by disputes between the scientists who wrote it and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), which commissioned it. It now appears that government officials heavily edited a chapter covering sea-level rise in the bay, written by John Anderson of Rice University in Houston, Texas.
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Anderson says he feels 鈥渄esperate and frustrated鈥� that the state is interfering with attempts to educate local people about changes to the Texan coast.
鈥淭exas state officials heavily edited a chapter covering sea-level rise in Galveston bay鈥�
TCEQ spokeswoman Andrea Morrow told the Houston Chronicle that the agency disagreed with information in the report.