Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack yesterday deflected questions about the role climate change may play in the historic drought now plaguing an estimated 61 percent of the continental United States.

The drought, which has led Vilsack's department to declare more than 1,200 counties in 29 states disaster areas, and a spate of extreme weather events, from Colorado wildfires to the Washington, D.C.-area derecho storm, have sparked a fresh round of public debate about the effects of a warming planet. But the USDA chief sidestepped that hot-button discussion yesterday when asked if climate change could be behind the punishing, crop-destroying conditions in the Midwest.

"I'm not a scientist, so I'm not going to opine as to the cause of this," Vilsack said, standing beside White House spokesman Jay Carney during his daily press briefing.

To take the long view for future adverse weather events, Vilsack said his team would continue working with seed companies to "create the kinds of seeds that will be more effective" in ensuring reliable crop yields.

When pressed by a second reporter on his "long-range thinking" about whether "more than better seeds" are needed to withstand future extreme episodes, Vilsack again demurred and credited seed technology with staving off further damage to a U.S. corn crop that he cautiously projected would rank near historic highs despite the record-breaking heat that continued this week.

While Vilsack sidestepped the question of climate's role in the drought, members of his party on Capitol Hill are keeping it alive. Two senior House Democrats last week renewed their request for a hearing on climate change by invoking recent weather events, while Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) took to the floor for a speech warning environmentally inclined colleagues to avoid using the forecast as a means to push the issue (E&ENews PM, July 13).

The expanded disaster designations yesterday made this year's drought the worst in more than 50 years, according to government records, though not as severe as the infamous 1930s episode known as the "Dust Bowl" for its impact on American farmlands.