Policy Forum

Former Bush Aide Who Edited Reports Is Hired by Exxon - New York Times

It seems fitting.
Link: Former Bush Aide Who Edited Reports Is Hired by Exxon - New York Times.

Philip A. Cooney, the former White House staff member who repeatedly revised government scientific reports on global warming, will go to work for Exxon Mobil this fall, the oil company said yesterday.

Mr. Cooney resigned as chief of staff for President Bush's environmental policy council on Friday, two days after documents obtained by The New York Times revealed that he had edited the reports in ways that cast doubt on the link between the emission of greenhouse gases and rising temperatures.

A former lawyer and lobbyist with the American Petroleum Institute, the main lobbying group for the oil industry, Mr. Cooney has no scientific training. The White House, which said on Friday that there was no connection between last week's disclosure and Mr. Cooney's resignation, repeated yesterday that his actions were part of the normal review process for documents on environmental issues involving many government agencies.

"Phil Cooney did a great job," said Dana Perino, a deputy spokeswoman for the White House, "and we appreciate his public service and the work that he did, and we wish him well in the private sector."

An Exxon spokesman, Tom Cirigliano, declined to describe Mr. Cooney's new job. Mr. Cooney did not respond to e-mail or phone messages.

Exxon Mobil has long financed advertising and lobbying efforts that question whether warming caused by humans poses risks serious enough to justify curbing carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas emitted by smokestacks and tailpipes.

Mr. Cirigliano said yesterday that the company was committed to acting responsibly on the issue.

"Exxon Mobil has taken, is taking and will continue to take tangible actions to reduce emissions in our operations, as well as in customer use of our products, and to better understand and prepare for the risks of climate change," Mr. Cirigliano said.

Carmakers May Test Exhaust Law

From the L.A. Times:

Automobile manufacturers are preparing to sue California, perhaps as early as this week, in an attempt to derail a pioneering state law that seeks to force the companies to reduce tailpipe emissions of heat-trapping gases linked to global warming.

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Clean Technology

Link: NDOL: Idea of the Week: Clean Technology.

Bush's Faith Based Science

Peer News

NASA Scientist Speaks Out on Global Warming

From an article in the New York Times:

A top NASA climate expert who twice briefed Vice President Dick Cheney on global warming plans to criticize the administration's approach to the issue in a lecture at the University of Iowa tonight and say that a senior administration official told him last year not to discuss dangerous consequences of rising temperatures.

The expert, Dr. James E. Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in Manhattan, expects to say that the Bush administration has ignored growing evidence that sea levels could rise significantly unless prompt action is taken to reduce heat-trapping emissions from smokestacks and tailpipes.

Many academic scientists, including dozens of Nobel laureates, have been criticizing the administration over its handling of climate change and other complex scientific issues. But Dr. Hansen, first in an interview with The New York Times a week ago and again in his planned lecture today, is the only leading scientist to speak out so publicly while still in the employ of the government.