Almost every time an environmental story like this comes out one thing becomes clear: if someone does a study of Presidential administrations starting with Teddy Roosevelt’s this administration is going to be ranked as having one of the worst environmental records:
A White House official who once led the oil industry’s fight against limits on greenhouse gases has repeatedly edited government climate reports in ways that play down links between such emissions and global warming, according to internal documents.
He once “led the oil industry’s fight against limits on greenhouse gases”? Phah! Typical liberal media distortion. And if he did: so? It doesn’t mean he’s biased in his viewpoint against global warming. (Rush. Go back to your OWN site..)
In handwritten notes on drafts of several reports issued in 2002 and 2003, the official, Philip A. Cooney, removed or adjusted descriptions of climate research that government scientists and their supervisors, including some senior Bush administration officials, had already approved. In many cases, the changes appeared in the final reports.
The dozens of changes, while sometimes as subtle as the insertion of the phrase “significant and fundamental” before the word “uncertainties,” tend to produce an air of doubt about findings that most climate experts say are robust.
Mr. Cooney is chief of staff for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the office that helps devise and promote administration policies on environmental issues.
So? What’s wrong with having someone who took a firm position on a controversial oil industry position and worked for the oil industry serving in that position? This is typical of those who try to make people in business out as the bad guys. (RUSH! I told you: you have millions of listerners and a great website — but not as great as your brother David’s which we have in our Right Voices blogroll column. Get off of my blog!!)
Before going to the White House in 2001, he was the “climate team leader” and a lobbyist at the American Petroleum Institute, the largest trade group representing the interests of the oil industry. A lawyer with a bachelor’s degree in economics, he has no scientific training.
So..what’s happening here is that the liberals…(Can I be any plainer? Let me do this post!!)
The documents were obtained by The New York Times from the Government Accountability Project, a nonprofit legal-assistance group for government whistle-blowers.
The project is representing Rick S. Piltz, who resigned in March as a senior associate in the office that coordinates government climate research. That office, now called the Climate Change Science Program, issued the documents that Mr. Cooney edited.
A White House spokeswoman, Michele St. Martin, said yesterday that Mr. Cooney would not be available to comment. “We don’t put Phil Cooney on the record,” Ms. St. Martin said. “He’s not a cleared spokesman.”
That is a very bad sign.
If the White House felt there was nothing wrong with what he did he’d be out there right now on the news shows, OR they’d issue a quick statement to deny it, etc. The bottom line is by a REFUSAL to let him respond the story stands as it is — no matter what administrative principle they site to keep him from talking directly to the press. The only saving grace for this administration is that the story says he made changes of descriptions even approved by Bush administration officials.
But even on that point, the White House hasn’t come out and said that the changes were made of descriptions approved by Bush officials and shouldn’t have been altered. So it’s a tacit approval of what has been done, coupled with keeping him away from having to answer questions from the media. And if you look at the overall record of the admininistration, it’s more than a tacit approval.
There is a way to have policy makers who don’t automatically accept every environmentalist contention or automatically accept every oil industry contention.
This administration hasn’t found it — and doesn’t seem to be looking for it.
BUT THAT’S JUST OUR VIEW. THERE ARE OTHER VOICES. HERE ARE A FEW:
—John Cole:”Do they think this is a school project, and all they have to do is fool the teacher and climate change won’t be an issue? I don’t want junk science or unfounded claims going forward, either, but it is becoming pretty clear to me that faith-based governance simply means that anything you don’t like or anything that might require a change in your policy position should be ignored or labeled ‘junk science.'”
—Richard Bradley:”If he’s not a cleared spokesman, then why is Clooney writing environmental policy in public documents? Clooney’s rewriting of policy after it had already been approved by White House staff raises the question of where his loyalty lies: to George W. Bush or to the oil industry. (Let us assume there is a difference.) President Bush should resolve the ambiguity and fire Phillip Clooney.”
—Ed Cone:”When the facts don’t align with your politics…change the facts.”
—TBogg notes that Clooney isn’t a cleared spokesman “But he is cleared for rewrites..”
—Chris Mooney:
Playing a key role in the story is longtime Climate Change Science Programemployee turned whistleblower Rick Piltz, who now states, “Each administration has a policy position on climate change. But I have not seen a situation like the one that has developed under this administration during the past four years, in which politicization by the White House has fed back directly into the science program in such a way as to undermine the credibility and integrity of the program.” It is really staggering just how much evidence has now accumulated to back this claim up.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.