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[Macam]

WASHINGTON - A former oil industry lobbyist who changed government reports on global warming has resigned in a long-planned departure, the White House said Saturday.

Philip Cooney, who was chief of staff of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, left Friday, two days after it was revealed that he had edited administration reports on climate change in 2002 and 2003.

His departure was "completely unrelated" to the disclosure, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

"Mr. Cooney has long been considering his options following four years of service to the administration," she said. "He'd accumulated many weeks of leave and decided to resign and take the summer off to spend time with his family."

Based on documents provided to the Government Accountability Project, a nonprofit group that helps whistle-blowers, The New York Times first reported Wednesday that Cooney made changes in several federal environmental reports. The changes tended to emphasize the uncertainty of evidence that greenhouse-gas emissions are causing global temperatures to rise. Cooney, a lawyer without a background in science, once headed the oil industry's lobbying on climate change.

The White House defended the changes, saying they were part of the normal, wide-ranging review process and did not violate an administration pledge to rely on sound science.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050611/ap_on_go_pr_wh/climate_reports_resignation_1

There's a start. Now how about Rumsfeld and Delay as an encore?

 

[Hitokage]

The White House defended the changes, saying they were part of the normal, wide-ranging review process and did not violate an administration pledge to rely on sound science.

That's pretty fucking orwellian.

 

[Dan]

Something more needs to happen than some simple and quiet weekend resignation. Absolutely ridiculous that other than this the administration will likely get a complete free pass.

 

[White Man]

Keep in mind that hand-picked successors to this regime will likely be taking office after Bush leaves. The Democratic party doesn't have it's junk together. If they don't get a lateral-reaching, party-wide defining, ballsy, statement out there soon, we'll be dealing with this Orwellian bullshit for far longer than 8 years.

Public opinion on the rulers may be down at the moment, but I think they've shown themselves to be more proficient at wielding the media at times of need than their competitors.

 

[videogamer]

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050611/ap_on_go_pr_wh/climate_reports_resignation_1

There's a start. Now how about Rumsfeld and Delay as an encore?

If they're going to leave, they should leave after hanging onto their job as long as they can before being forced out. That way, their reputation would be sullied not just among those who pay attention to politics, but with a greater slice of the population.

 

[Mandark]

A surprising twist in the story!

A former official at the White House Council on Environmental Quality who resigned days after the New York Times reported he had changed some government reports on global warming is joining oil giant ExxonMobil .

Philip Cooney, the former chief of staff of the council and a former energy industry lobbyist, will be working for Exxon beginning in the fall, company spokesman Russ Roberts said on Tuesday.

Wow! Didn't see that coming!

 

[Phoenix]

A surprising twist in the story!
Wow! Didn't see that coming!

One hand washes the other...

 

[Hitokage]

And I think it was the Financial Times that I saw a frontpage article on Exxon's unapologetic stance towards the environment, unlike other companies like BP and Shell.

 

[Mandark]

Some Like It Hot, by Chris Mooney.

Neat little article on how ExxonMobil funds think tanks and other groups to give the impression that there's a scientific debate on whether global warming is real, even after BP, Shell, Ford, GM, and DaimlerChrysler gave up the ghost.

 

[Willco]

I want to work for Big Business!

 

[Macam]

From TP:

It’s no shocker that, as today’s Wall Street Journal points out, ExxonMobil continues to balk at any effort to curb emissions linked to global warming.

But it is appalling to learn that BP, which even incorporated the color green into its logo, is lobbying just as aggressively against Senate efforts to limit global warming pollution. The Independent newspaper in the UK reported over the weekend that BP is showing “two faces” – marketing itself to the public as an environmentally progressive company, while “privately lobbying in Washington to block legislation to introduce a mandatory curb on greenhouse gases in the US.”

ExxonMobil refutes the notion of global warming period; and BP, which advertises fairly heavily in The Economist as being eco-friendly, is anything but. Seems Exxon isn't alone here.

 

[radioheadrule83]

The country that together with Australia (the other country that didn't sign Kyoto) accounts for 30% of all global emissions... has an oil industry lobbyist editorialise it's stance on climate change?

God help us. No, really. Please.

 

[Outdoor Miner]

The country that together with Australia (the other country that didn't sign Kyoto) accounts for 30% of all global emissions... has an oil industry lobbyist editorialise it's stance on climate change?

God help us. No, really. Please.

Hasn't the Bush administration appointed former lobbyists all over the place? I mean, talk about a big fucking CONFLICT OF INTEREST.

 

[B-B-Bomba!]

These vibrations are starting to feel real ...

 

[videogamer]

The country that together with Australia (the other country that didn't sign Kyoto) accounts for 30% of all global emissions... has an oil industry lobbyist editorialise it's stance on climate change?

God help us. No, really. Please.

Who are the main opponents in Australia? They don't have many oil companies, do they?

 

[Incognito]

What WhiteMan said. When it comes to election time, all the conventional wisdom is thrown out the window and it's a whole new ballgame. Not only do the Democrats seem out of RNC's league in election time, they seem to be unwilling to even get in the dirt and throw shit back.