From today's EEI newsletter:
House Panel Examines Efforts by White House to Slant Climate Change Info
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has released a sheaf of documents showing how a former oil industry lobbyist, Philip A. Cooney, worked within the White House to recraft scientific evidence associated with climate change, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times reported today. Wrote the New York Times: "Cooney said the editing was part of the normal White House review process and reflected findings in a climate report written for President Bush by the National Academy of Sciences in 2001. They were the first public statements on the issue by Cooney, the former chief of staff of the White House Council on Environmental Quality." Cooney came to the role after serving as climate team leader for the American Petroleum Institute and subsequent to his tenure went to work for Exxon Mobil.
At a congressional hearing, James E. Hansen, the top climate expert at NASA, testified that "editing like that of Mr. Cooney and efforts to limit scientists’ access to the news media and the public amounted to censorship and muddied the public debate over a pressing environmental issue." Hansen was quoted by the N.Y. Times as saying: "If public affairs offices are left under the control of political appointees, it seems to me that inherently they become offices of propaganda."
The L.A. Times called the "open confrontation" between Chairman Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., and the ranking Republican, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., "a rare display of direct debate in otherwise carefully choreographed hearings."
Los Angeles Times , New York Times , March 20.
1 comment:
These hearings were being played on CSpan this a.m. and they were a sight for sore eyes. Waxman had one witness who looked about 17 confessing that he had no background in science whatsoever and was rewriting NASA official pubs. Wild.
from Ruth
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