Monday, March 19, 2007
The Heavy - and Unqualified - Hand of Philip Cooney
Henry Waxman's (D-CA) Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released a memorandum today documenting hundreds of anti-science edits made by a Bush Administration official to the Administration's Strategic Plan of the Climate Change Science, the EPA's Report on the Environment, and the annual report to Congress, Our Changing Planet.
According to the memo, at least 181 edits were made to the Strategic Plan to exaggerate scientific uncertainties; an additional 113 edits deemphasized the human role in global warming.
Were these edits made by climate change scientists concerned with scientific accuracy? No. Most of them were made by Philip Cooney, formerly Bush's Chief of Staff of the Council on Environmental Quality. Cooney was (and is - he now works for ExxonMobil) an energy lobbyist. He isn't a trained scientist; his undergraduate degree is in economics, and he has a law degree. Mostly, he's an industry lackey, putting the short-term profits of energy companies above the welfare of the rest of humanity (if he possesses humanity).
According to the memo, at least 181 edits were made to the Strategic Plan to exaggerate scientific uncertainties; an additional 113 edits deemphasized the human role in global warming.
Were these edits made by climate change scientists concerned with scientific accuracy? No. Most of them were made by Philip Cooney, formerly Bush's Chief of Staff of the Council on Environmental Quality. Cooney was (and is - he now works for ExxonMobil) an energy lobbyist. He isn't a trained scientist; his undergraduate degree is in economics, and he has a law degree. Mostly, he's an industry lackey, putting the short-term profits of energy companies above the welfare of the rest of humanity (if he possesses humanity).
