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News & Analysis | REG•WATCH Blog | Press Room
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
House Presses Bush Officials on Political Interference in Climate Science
As Reg•Watch blogged yesterday, a House committee held a hearing to investigate the Bush administration's manipulation of government climate science. The hearing was the second by the Oversight and Government Reform Committee to examine political interference in climate science.
Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) called the first hearing after the White House Council on Environmental Quality's refused to turn over documents the committee had requested. In his opening remarks, Waxman said CEQ has turned over eight boxes but has not yet fulfilled the months old request. Still, the evidence the committee has seen "suggests there may have been a concerted effort directed by the White House to mislead the public about the dangers of global climate change."
The testimony of Philip Cooney was nothing to write home about. Cooney was CEQ chief of staff (in between stints at the American Petroleum Institute and Exxon-Mobil) until 2005. He resigned after it was discovered he had altered climate science documents to plant seeds of doubt.
Not surprisingly, Cooney claimed his actions were completely justified and cited a National Academies of Science report as his basis. The committee quickly shot holes through his defense. Waxman pressed Cooney on a verbatim quote from the NAS report he had completely removed. The sentence indicated the breadth and severity of climate change.
Read more from The New York Times
Posted by Matt Madia
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