Following is an except review and response , concerning Steve's letter to ACS;

Dear Mr. Welcenbach:

Congratulations on your letter of resignation from ACS. It was compelling and beautifully written. I couldn't agree more. I wish you luck in your career as a non-member of ACS.

It's a crime to see the bureaucracies of formerly prestigious scientific societies losing touch with its members in regards to the important subject of climate change and other areas with social implications requiring us to think "outside of the box." Possible human involvement in climate change is probably the most important scientific/social/economic/environmental issue of the present and foreseeable future . The same thing that happened with ACS also has happened with AMS and APS who also seem to be compelled to adhere to the party line. As an environmental engineer and  former chemical engineer I was a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) for almost 50 years until my retirement in 1990. But I don't know if it and other engineering societies are following a similar course. (Maybe not, since engineers are more practical, level-headed and less easily led than pure scientists. Hah!). Nevertheless, AIChE may very well have succumed to this unfortunate posture, considering that many chemical engineers are probably involved in the pointless, expensive and wasteful research trying to capture and sequester CO2 to protect us all from the dreaded Global Warming and don't want to see their funding in jeopardy. The irony in all of these efforts to control CO2 is that they will probably have no measureable effect on climate, once implemented..

I am a member of an informal group of 16 scientists and engineers here in Connecticut  that is greatly concerned about the directions being taken by certain scientific societies,government agencies, news media and others trying to force us to take the politically correct view of climate change and its "solution." Our group tries to keep all members up to date on developments in the area. We have written tracts presenting our views that have often been ignored by the media, but we keep trying. Your important letter has inspired us. It was distributed to our group by a member, Larry Gould, a physist and active member of APS.

My principal reason for writing you is a comment you made in your letter to ACS. You stated that you were unable to get the management of ACS iinterested in not only AGW, but also the Abiogenic Theory of Petroleum Formation. I have also become interested in this latter area after reading and re-reading several times the book by Thomas Gold, "The Deep Hot Biosphere, the Myth of Fossil Fuels." I ssume that this little book covers the same area you are interested in. I was attracted to this book, partly becaust the Preface was writtn by Freeman Dyson, a well known Climate Realist (I think) with whom I have had some unacknowledged contact. I found the book to be fascinating and have been urging our little group of "Climate Realists" to read it. Assuming this is the area that interests you, I would appreciate any  recommendations of other publications and informationg that dig deeper into this area. (I was hoping to contact Gold directly, but find that he died 5 or 6 years ago.). If what Gold says is true, we shouldn't have to start worring about running out of carbonaceous fuels and using the flawed science of Climate Change to force us to stop burning coal, oil and natural gas. Your comments will be appreciated.

Sincerely,

John E. Yocom, Environmental Consultant (Ret), B.S., MIT, 1947, Chem. Eng.

Following is Steve;s response;

Hi John,

Thank you for your kind and informative letter.

I, too, have read Thomas Gold's book "The Deep Hot Biosphere" and consider it my favorite book of all time and the third most important (behind Hayek's  "The Road to Serfdom"(1) and Driessen's "Ecoimperialism"(2)). Since I read at least 40-50 new books per year for the last several years, this is saying something.

Gold's data, factual analysis and conclusions I believe have no rival. I have read other books on the biogenic origin, and, frankly, they are pretty sad. The only data supporting this conclusion in any way is the isomeric make up of most petroleum. But all other avenues of logic lead to dead ends which they simply get to, dismiss, and move on to the next one. Berkowitz's book is one such biogenic disaster.

Gold's explanation for the isomeric question I think is quite plausible based upon all the facts we know and relatively recent discoveries of metabolic processes outside of conventional carbon-hydrogen oxidation. Also, if your going to be satisfied with dead ends as the biogenic people are, then I think a still undiscovered non-biological process which yields stereospecific products under strenuous interior earth conditions is a much more logical postulate.

As I tell folks, I can take dolomite from my backyard, crush it, mix it with some water in a high pressure container in my lab, expose it to high pressure and temperature conditions and I can make you petroleum hydrocarbons. Can't do it with plant matter.

It is also important to note that these two theories are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

I would like to drill a well on my uncle's farm up in Northern Wisconsin which is on granitic shield rock of the Superior Upland region, part of the Canadian Shield. We could replicated Golds Swedish experiment and maybe rig up some kind of sampling device to preserve inner Earth pressure and temperature conditions within it to see if we could physically capture some of these organisms in the deepest part of the biosphere while keeping them alive. I truly believe something like this could be done. And I have the place to do it.

Gold give us lots of other things to think about as well, and I believe I have come up a few more myself. I would love to get together with all of you and talk about all of these things. Besides being fun and intriguing, I think it may lead to things much, much bigger.

I am attaching some files I received years ago and forwarded to Rudy Baum which apparently have no interest to the ACS. I'm POSITIVE YOU will find these interesting.

There is also a guy at U of Indiana- South Bend named Henry Scott that does work on this and has published papers. He has done some good and important work. Unfortunately, when I tracked him down I found out he's drunk the AGW Kool-Aid, which is a complete contradiction of logic. But so is the state of higher education.

I would love to begin some sort of networking on this topic with you and all on our e-mail list. There is no doubt that this topic will be one which will impact the future in a big way.

I will attempt to reach you by phone in the next several days. Please phone me anytime at your convenience at 414-491-3421 or 800-959-3421. Both get directly to me.

I must be off now. We have a big support rally for our newly elected, bold, honest and courageous Governor Scott Walker which I MUST attend. He is one of the great leaders coming of age which will lead us out of socialistic nightmare. I'm sure you have seen plenty of coverage of it in the last few days.

Thank you again for your effort and kindness. I truly look forward to speaking to you and meeting you sometime soon.

Yours in Truth and Freedom,

Steve Welcenbach