White House Environmental Chief Cooney Watered Down Climate Reports

On Tuesday, President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair met at the White House in anticipation of the G8 summit in Scotland next month. Blair came to Washington with the goal of persuading Bush to increase efforts to address global climate change and curb greenhouse gases. So far, Bush has refused, calling only for voluntary measures to slow growth emissions through 2012. In 2001, President Bush withdrew U.S support for the Kyoto climate change agreement claiming that it would hurt the nation's economy. At Tuesday's news conference, Bush defended his strategy to combat climate change:

"In terms of climate change, I've always said it's a serious long-term issue that needs to be dealt with. And my administration isn't waiting around to deal with the issue, we're acting. I don't know if you're aware of this, but we lead the world when it comes to dollars spent, millions of dollars spent on research about climate change. We want to know more about it. It's easier to solve a problem when you know a lot about it. And if you look at the statistics, you'll find the United States has taken the lead on this research."

That was president Bush speaking at Tuesdays press conference. Yesterday, The New York Times reported that 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. The official -- Philip Cooney -- is chief of staff for the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Before coming to the White House in 2001, he was a lobbyist at the American Petroleum Institute.

The Bush administration today defended Cooney's participation. At his morning briefing for reporters, White House press secretary Scott McClellan, said Cooney's reports were "scientifically sound." And the Guardian of London reported yesterday that the environmental group Greenpeace obtained documents which showed that President Bush's global climate policy was heavily influenced by ExxonMobil and other oil companies.

The article states that in briefing papers given to U.S under secretary of State Paula Dobriansky between 2001 and 2004, “the administration is found thanking Exxon executives for the company's “active involvement” in helping to determine climate change policy, and also seeking its advice on what climate change policies the company might find acceptable.”

* Kert Davies, Research Director for Greenpeace
* Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Club
* Eric Larsen, Arctic Explorer just returned from an expedition that was cut short by the effects of global warming
* Lonnie Dupre, Arctic Explorer with Greenpeace

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