The White House advisor who reportedly repeatedly edited government climate reports to downplay play down links between such emissions and global warming has resigned.
The timing — coming after a huge controversy — suggests that the resignation didn’t just pop into his head. And the White House’s explanation is the kind of stock statement an employer or organization usually gives when it invited someone to leave:
Philip A. Cooney, the chief of staff to President Bush’s Council on Environmental Quality, resigned yesterday, White House officials said.
Mr. Cooney has no scientific training. Dana Perino, a deputy White House press secretary, said Mr. Cooney “had long been considering his options following four years of service in the administration.� Ms. Perino said the decision was unrelated to revelations about the documents. Mr. Cooney did not return e-mails messages or phone messages left at his home.
Ms. Perino noted that the documents in question dated from 2003.
“He had accumulated many weeks of leave and had decided to resign and take the summer off to spend the time with his family,� Ms. Perino said.
Uh huh…And:
Before moving to the White House in 2001, Mr. Cooney, 45, was a lawyer for the American Petroleum Institute, the main lobby for the oil industry, and held the position of “climate team leader,� in which he fought restrictions on greenhouse gases.
The documents, first described on Wednesday in The New York Times , stirred reactions ranging from defenses of Mr. Cooney by oil lobbyists to strident criticism by environmental groups and satire from Jon Stewart on his comedy-news program “The Daily Show.�
Most scientists and scientific groups, including the National Academy of Sciences in a letter released this week, have said the relationship between greenhouse-gas emissions and warming is clear enough to justify prompt actions by countries to curb emissions.
Philip Clapp, the president of the National Environmental Trust, an environmental group in Washington, said the problem with White House treatment of the climate issue was broader than just one person.
“His resignation is less surprising than the fact that the lead oil industry lobbyist on global warming should have been given this kind of power over climate science and scientists,� Mr. Clapp said.
The good news in all of this is that it suggests that there are boundaries that can’t be crossed. It’s kind of like laying a marker down on what constitutes the American political mainstream. And repeatedly changing scientific reports to seemingly suit a political agenda would be one of them. Some may say that didn’t happen and that Clooney’s background as a lawyer for the American Petroleum Institute had nothing to do with anything. And some already argue his changes weren’t a big deal:
Myron Ebell, who for years has fought restrictions on greenhouse gases on behalf of groups with industry ties, said Mr. Cooney’s actions were part of the normal adjustments to language in government documents to mesh them with policy goals.
Even so, the whole episode suggests this: there is a limit.
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.