[dropcap]A[/dropcap]s it turns out, one of the doors into the international conversation about global warming opens through Hays County.

That’s because the chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space and Technology is U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, a San Antonio native whose district includes big parts of Hays County west of Interstate 35.

Rep. Smith’s committee oversees most scientific research at the federal level, and he has been a prominent critic of President Obama’s effo...