http://www.desmogblog.com/uncover-dscovr-part-3-digging-for-answers-from-nasa
From the page: “NASA’s legal department determined that among other things, it was necessary to withhold all internal documents relating to the decision to kill DSCOVR ‘to protect against public confusion that might result from disclosure of reasons and rationales that were not ultimately the grounds for the Agency’s actions.’
NASA also relied on a legal privilege to protect ‘open frank discussions on matters of policy between supervisors and superiors’.
That seems a bit thin. The climate models the DSCOVR would help calibrate are now driving some of the most sweeping public policy decisions in the world.
After spending billions of dollars on low-Earth orbit observations, current climate models still have an energy imbalance of 4-6 watts per square meter, which is two to three times larger than the effect of atmospheric CO2. The unique data DSCOVR would beam back from 1.5 million kilometers away would help resolve those uncertainties and provide the world a much clearer view of how bad climate change really is.
Yet NASA is not only refusing to launch DSCOVR after taking over $100 million in taxpayers money for the project, they are also refusing to release any documents about the reasons for canceling the mission.
So what is NASA hiding? Are they simply embarrassed by this fiasco? Is there some incriminating email from the White House telling NASA to kill the project? What else is going on here? Desmog Blog is now contemplating a legal challenge to pry open this cone of silence.”