Investigation of federal Arctic scientist started with complaint

Mary L. Kendall said in an Aug. 25 letter to U.S. Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., that the Office of Inspector General in March 2010 received "credible allegations from a seasoned, career Department of the Interior (DOI) employee" that acts of scientific misconduct may have been committed by one or more Interior employees.

She did not name the employee who made the allegations.

The Office of Inspector General subsequently launched an investigation of Dr. Charles Monnett, who seven years ago was employed by the Minerals Management Service, the agency that oversaw federal offshore oil lease sales and drilling. The agency has been restructured as the Bureau of Ocean Energy, Management, and Regulatory Enforcement.

On flights to count migrating bowhead whales and other marine mammals in September 2004, Monnett and another employee, Jeffrey Gleason, spotted four drowned polar bears. The flights followed a severe storm.

In a peer-reviewed paper published in 2006, they said they were reporting, to the best of their knowledge, the first observations of the bears floating dead and presumed drowned while apparently swimming long distances. Polar bears are considered strong swimmers, they wrote, but long-distance swims may exact a greater metabolic toll than standing or walking on ice in better weather.

They said their observations suggested the bears drowned in rough seas and high winds. They also added that the findings "suggest that drowning-related deaths of polar bears may increase in the future if the observed trend of regression of pack ice and/or longer open water periods continues."

The paper drew national attention and was cited by former Vice President Al Gore in his book and movie about global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth."

In interviews with OIG special agents this year, Monnett was grilled about methodology for the paper. Monnett was suspended from his job in July but returned to work last week.

Bureau director Michael Bromwich has said Monnett's suspension was unrelated to his scientific work or his paper on observations of drowned polar bears.

Inspectors said in a letter to Monnett that he had acknowledged helping a polar bear researcher prepare a proposal even though Monnett was the government official responsible for determining whether the proposal met minimum qualifications. When Monnett went back to work last week, he was told that he would have no role in developing or managing contracts.

Kendall told Inofe, a member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, that OIG typically does not comment on ongoing investigations but that this one has been subject to much public speculation as the result of statements and the release of interview transcripts by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which serves as Monnett's legal representative.

"We are willing to share some background information about this investigation that we hope will quell speculation and assure interested parties of the OIG's objectivity, professionalism, and independence in investigating this matter," Kendall said.

The OIG does not hold itself out as technically expert in any area of scientific discipline, she said.

"We will determine what the process is that governs the scientific activities at issue, whether there was any deviation from the process, and if so, how and the extent to which such deviation may have affected the results," Kendall wrote.

PEER executive director Jeffery Ruch last week said that OIG had assigned "clueless criminal investigators" to question Monnett's paper, drawing outrage from scientists here and abroad and undermining the Obama administration's posture on climate change.

Ruch said Thursday that if the anonymous employee making the allegations were a fellow federal scientist, the venue for rebutting Monnett should have been another paper that fostered open debate.

"If he was not a scientist, why would he be able to make critical allegations of scientific misconduct" he asked.

He called Kendall's letter defending OIG credibility "damage control."

Kendall told Inhofe the OIG would like to respond to PEER allegations about its own integrity and the investigation but cannot. The investigation is not complete, she said.