Sea-level bill: Who is John Droz?

The state Senate's Ag/Environment committee is scheduled to hear a bill Thursday that would restrict how state agencies and planners predict sea-level change.

The measure, currently on the panel's agenda as H819 CAMA Setback Requirements, would instead rewrite state law to spell out who would be authorized to predict the impact of sea level rise on the state's coastal counties. 

The new version bans predictions of sea level rise "unless such rates are from statistically significant, peer-reviewed data and are consistent with historic trends."  This essentially bans any new projections based on climate change, since they would be inconsistent with historic trends.

"Bottom Line: we got everything we asked for," writes NC-20 chair Tom Thompson in the memo. "We got a commitment to totally abandon any reference to accelerated SLR (sea level rise)."

On the front lines of the debate is NC-20's science consultant John Droz, a retired realtor and climate change denier who's become something of a cause celebre in conservative circles. 

Interviewed last December, Droz said his business as a real estate broker Is "a hobby, primarily for a tax deduction." 

“90% of my time is spent on science,” he said. "My focus is to try to educate citizens. Citizens could care less whether I have a peer-reviewed article.”

“There are people who may not like what I’m saying. But science is about facts," he said. "“No one has ever come forward with any proof that what I’ve said is wrong.”

“I’m a scientist," Droz said in response to questions about the image. "I like literature. I try to be creative. Just something that came into my head.”

It's not the only questionable image Droz has used. Attendees at an anti-wind-energy presentation he gave last fall to the Carteret County Economic Development Council said it showed President Obama's face morphing into Satan's.

The Carteret EDC could provide neither minutes of the meeting nor the presentation. Nor could Droz.  

"I don’t remember any such image of President Obama," he said. “I’m sorry, I don’t. I’ve given probably a hundred presentations. I don’t keep them all.”

Asked why he should be regarded as a climate expert,  Droz explained, "I'm an internationally known person." 

He says his views on science are based on fact, not politics. "I don’t care whether it’s Democrats or Republicans or unaffiliateds. I am about the science."

And, Droz says, says he isn't being paid for his opinions. "No one has paid me a dime. I have no agenda here to promote anybody’s belief. I certainly have opinions." 

Mr. Droz also denies ever having used a slide showing President Obama morphing into Satan, and disputes many of the quotes in the story.