boutons_
03-19-2007, 08:27 PM
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March 19, 2007
Ex-Bush Aide Challenged on Climate Reports
By ANDREW C. REVKIN (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/andrew_c_revkin/index.html?inline=nyt-per) and MATTHEW L. WALD (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/w/matthew_l_wald/index.html?inline=nyt-per)
WASHINGTON, March 19 — Democratic lawmakers released documents today that showed hundreds of instances in which a White House official who was previously an oil industry lobbyist edited government climate reports to play up uncertainty or to play down evidence of a human role in global warming (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/globalwarming/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier).
In a hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the official, Philip A. Cooney, who left government in 2005, defended the changes he made in government reports over several years, saying 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 (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/national_academy_of_sciences/index.html?inline=nyt-org) in 2001.
The hearing included the first public statements on the issue by Mr. Cooney, the former chief of staff of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Before joining the White House, Mr. Cooney was the “climate team leader” for the American Petroleum Institute (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/a/american_petroleum_institute/index.html?inline=nyt-org), the main industry lobby in Washington.
He was hired by Exxon Mobil after resigning in 2005 following reports on the editing in The New York Times. The White House said his resignation was not related to the disclosures.
Mr. Cooney said his past work opposing restrictions on global warming gases for the oil industry had no bearing on his work once he joined the White House. “When I came to the White House,” he testified, “my sole loyalties were to the president and his administration.”
He added that he based his editing and recommendations on what he saw in good faith as the “most authoritative and current views of the state of scientific knowledge.”
He was also staunchly defended by James L. Connaughton, the chairman of the council and his former boss.
The hearing was part of a continuing investigation, begun under the committee’s Republican chairman last year, of charges of political interference in climate science by the Bush administration.
It became a heated tug of war over the appropriate role of scientists and political appointees in framing how the government conveys information on global warming.
The hearing also produced the first sworn statements from George C. Deutsch III, now 25, who moved in 2005 from the Bush re-election campaign to public affairs jobs at NASA (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/national_aeronautics_and_space_administration/index.html?inline=nyt-org), where he warned career press officers to exert more control over James E. Hansen, the top climate expert at the space agency.
Testifying at the hearing, Dr. Hansen said that editing like that done by Mr. Cooney and efforts to limit scientists’ access to the press and public amounted to censorship and muddied the public debate over a pressing environmental issue.
“If public affairs offices are left under the control of political appointees, it seems to me that inherently they become offices of propaganda,” he said.
Republicans (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/r/republican_party/index.html?inline=nyt-org) criticized Dr. Hansen for what they described as taking political stances, spending increasing amounts of time on public speaking, and accepting a $250,000 award from the Heinz Family Philanthropies, run by Teresa Heinz Kerry (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/teresa_heinz_kerry/index.html?inline=nyt-per), the wife of Senator John Kerry (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/john_kerry/index.html?inline=nyt-per).
Representative Darrell Issa, a Republican from Southern California, proposed that Dr. Hansen, by complaining about efforts to present two sides on global warming research, had become an advocate for limiting the debate.
“What I’m an advocate for is the scientific method,” Dr. Hansen replied.
Mr. Deutsch said his warnings to other NASA press officials about Dr. Hansen’s statements and media access were meant to convey a “level of frustration among my higher-ups at NASA.”
Mr. Deutsch resigned last year after Web and newspaper reports showed that he never graduated from Texas A&M (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/t/texas_a_and_m_university/index.html?inline=nyt-org) University, as his resume on file at NASA said he had. He has since completed work for the degree, he said today.
Democrats focused on fresh details that committee staff compiled showing how Mr. Cooney made hundreds of changes to government climate research plans and reports to Congress on climate that boosted a sense of uncertainty about the science.
The documents “appear to portray a systematic White House effort to minimize the significance of climate change,” said a memorandum circulated by the Democrats under the committee chairman, Representative Henry A. Waxman (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/w/henry_a_waxman/index.html?inline=nyt-per) of California.
“The documents show that Mr. Cooney and other Council on Environmental Quality officials made at least 181 edits to the Administration’s Strategic Plan of the Climate Change Science Program to exaggerate or emphasize scientific uncertainties,” the memo said. “They also made at least 113 edits to the plan to deemphasize or diminish the importance of the human role in global warming.”
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you're doing a heckuva job, dubya.
22 more months
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March 19, 2007
Ex-Bush Aide Challenged on Climate Reports
By ANDREW C. REVKIN (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/andrew_c_revkin/index.html?inline=nyt-per) and MATTHEW L. WALD (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/w/matthew_l_wald/index.html?inline=nyt-per)
WASHINGTON, March 19 — Democratic lawmakers released documents today that showed hundreds of instances in which a White House official who was previously an oil industry lobbyist edited government climate reports to play up uncertainty or to play down evidence of a human role in global warming (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/globalwarming/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier).
In a hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the official, Philip A. Cooney, who left government in 2005, defended the changes he made in government reports over several years, saying 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 (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/national_academy_of_sciences/index.html?inline=nyt-org) in 2001.
The hearing included the first public statements on the issue by Mr. Cooney, the former chief of staff of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Before joining the White House, Mr. Cooney was the “climate team leader” for the American Petroleum Institute (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/a/american_petroleum_institute/index.html?inline=nyt-org), the main industry lobby in Washington.
He was hired by Exxon Mobil after resigning in 2005 following reports on the editing in The New York Times. The White House said his resignation was not related to the disclosures.
Mr. Cooney said his past work opposing restrictions on global warming gases for the oil industry had no bearing on his work once he joined the White House. “When I came to the White House,” he testified, “my sole loyalties were to the president and his administration.”
He added that he based his editing and recommendations on what he saw in good faith as the “most authoritative and current views of the state of scientific knowledge.”
He was also staunchly defended by James L. Connaughton, the chairman of the council and his former boss.
The hearing was part of a continuing investigation, begun under the committee’s Republican chairman last year, of charges of political interference in climate science by the Bush administration.
It became a heated tug of war over the appropriate role of scientists and political appointees in framing how the government conveys information on global warming.
The hearing also produced the first sworn statements from George C. Deutsch III, now 25, who moved in 2005 from the Bush re-election campaign to public affairs jobs at NASA (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/national_aeronautics_and_space_administration/index.html?inline=nyt-org), where he warned career press officers to exert more control over James E. Hansen, the top climate expert at the space agency.
Testifying at the hearing, Dr. Hansen said that editing like that done by Mr. Cooney and efforts to limit scientists’ access to the press and public amounted to censorship and muddied the public debate over a pressing environmental issue.
“If public affairs offices are left under the control of political appointees, it seems to me that inherently they become offices of propaganda,” he said.
Republicans (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/r/republican_party/index.html?inline=nyt-org) criticized Dr. Hansen for what they described as taking political stances, spending increasing amounts of time on public speaking, and accepting a $250,000 award from the Heinz Family Philanthropies, run by Teresa Heinz Kerry (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/teresa_heinz_kerry/index.html?inline=nyt-per), the wife of Senator John Kerry (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/john_kerry/index.html?inline=nyt-per).
Representative Darrell Issa, a Republican from Southern California, proposed that Dr. Hansen, by complaining about efforts to present two sides on global warming research, had become an advocate for limiting the debate.
“What I’m an advocate for is the scientific method,” Dr. Hansen replied.
Mr. Deutsch said his warnings to other NASA press officials about Dr. Hansen’s statements and media access were meant to convey a “level of frustration among my higher-ups at NASA.”
Mr. Deutsch resigned last year after Web and newspaper reports showed that he never graduated from Texas A&M (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/t/texas_a_and_m_university/index.html?inline=nyt-org) University, as his resume on file at NASA said he had. He has since completed work for the degree, he said today.
Democrats focused on fresh details that committee staff compiled showing how Mr. Cooney made hundreds of changes to government climate research plans and reports to Congress on climate that boosted a sense of uncertainty about the science.
The documents “appear to portray a systematic White House effort to minimize the significance of climate change,” said a memorandum circulated by the Democrats under the committee chairman, Representative Henry A. Waxman (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/w/henry_a_waxman/index.html?inline=nyt-per) of California.
“The documents show that Mr. Cooney and other Council on Environmental Quality officials made at least 181 edits to the Administration’s Strategic Plan of the Climate Change Science Program to exaggerate or emphasize scientific uncertainties,” the memo said. “They also made at least 113 edits to the plan to deemphasize or diminish the importance of the human role in global warming.”
===========
you're doing a heckuva job, dubya.
22 more months