Congress Releases Report on White House Science Manipulation
The evidence before the Committee leads to one inescapable conclusion: the Bush Administration has engaged in a systematic effort to manipulate climate change science and mislead policymakers and the public about the dangers of global warming."
The report, Political Interference With Climate Change Science Under the Bush Administration, details a 16-month investigation into allegations of political interference with government climate change science under the Bush Administration.
During the course of this investigation, the Committee obtained over 27,000 pages of documents from the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and the Commerce Department, held two investigative hearings, and deposed or interviewed key officials. Much of the information made available to the Committee has never been publicly disclosed.
Here are some of the key findings in the report:
The White House exerted unusual control over the public statements of federal scientists on climate change issues.
Regarding Climate Science
The Administration’s Censorship of Climate Scientists was
Widespread - 150 federal climate scientists from eight federal agencies personally experienced at least one incident of political interference during the past five years.
The White House systematically minimized the significance of climate change by editing government climate change reports.
The White House Edited EPA’s [Environmental Protection Agency] Report on the Environment.
The White House Eliminated the Climate Change Section of
EPA’s Air Trends Report.
The White House was Involved in Editing EPA’s Legal Opinions.
http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20071210101633.pdf
The report, Political Interference With Climate Change Science Under the Bush Administration, details a 16-month investigation into allegations of political interference with government climate change science under the Bush Administration.
During the course of this investigation, the Committee obtained over 27,000 pages of documents from the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and the Commerce Department, held two investigative hearings, and deposed or interviewed key officials. Much of the information made available to the Committee has never been publicly disclosed.
Here are some of the key findings in the report:
The White House exerted unusual control over the public statements of federal scientists on climate change issues.
Regarding Climate Science
The Administration’s Censorship of Climate Scientists was
Widespread - 150 federal climate scientists from eight federal agencies personally experienced at least one incident of political interference during the past five years.
The White House systematically minimized the significance of climate change by editing government climate change reports.
The White House Edited EPA’s [Environmental Protection Agency] Report on the Environment.
The White House Eliminated the Climate Change Section of
EPA’s Air Trends Report.
The White House was Involved in Editing EPA’s Legal Opinions.
http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20071210101633.pdf
9 Comments
Constitutional_Patriot*quality post
siftbotAwarding qruel with one star point for this contribution to Sift Talk - declared quality by Constitutional_Patriot.
smibboholy shit!
ravenOh, what will they do next? at this point, the possibilities seem endless.
qruel^ what haven't they done. it seems as though every branch and office of the government has been stacked. Voting and civl rights, epa, justice department, etc...
qruelPLEASE view this link
http://members.greenpeace.org/blog/exxonsecrets/2007/12/11/dana_perino_takes_it_personally_when_peo
it will supply the hyperlinks that are in the article below
White House Climate Science Censorship - Why Perino Takes It Personally
Posted by kert_davies on 12/11/2007 4:33 pm
Hmmm...wonder why Dana Perino reacted with such passion to a question yesterday about Rep. Waxman's (proposed) report on climate science censorship by the Bush White House?
Aside from her laughable and classic Bush-like response - dismissing the report then admitting that she hadn't even read it but had "seen reports about the report".... a flub up reported nicely here on DeSmogBlog.
Add this to Perino's mishandling of White House censorship of Center for Disease Control Director's Senate testimony in late October, covered well by ThinkProgress and RollingStone.
Here at ExxonSecrets, we know a little more about Ms. Perino from our 10+ years of research on global warming backlash. Her anti-environmental roots run deep.
Kyoto Bashing in 1997
First off, in our archives we have a press release she penned during her days on Capitol Hill in the late 1990s, when she was press officer for Representative Schaefer (R-CO). Her boss was admonishing the Clinton Administration in June 1997 to slow down the push toward Kyoto agreement in December 1997, saying there still were too many unanswered questions about the impact on the US economy and other common refrains of the day pushed by the Global Climate Coalition.
On the CEQ Denial Team
Perino came back to DC to work as Director of Public Affairs for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, where she was, in fact, running cover for climate criminals Jim Connaughton and Phil Cooney, the two main culprits in the Waxman report.
At CEQ, Perino was part of the global warming policy gatekeeper team, doing damage control and coordinating with other agencies on climate policy and communications. There are many memos to and from Perino to Cooney including this one in the midst of Cooney's EPA report editing meltdown. Here she forwards Phil a comforting article by Brent Bozell of the Media Research Center, another Exxon funded front group. Cooney responds hopefully, "do you know where this ran?"
Perino Hangs Out with Exxon's Main Front Group
Like Cooney, Perino also cozied up to Exxon's Denial Machine. Here is an email from Perino to the Competitive Enterprise Institute's Angela Logomasini asking for a lunch meeting and saying she had been reading the CEI's report The Environmental Source. The global warming chapter of this anti-enviro tome, penned by Myron Ebell, looks like it became a key page in the CEQ playbook. CEI at the time was the leading recipient of Exxon denial cash, but was dumped by the Exxon Foundation in 2006.
Here's another note from Perino to Cooney and Connaughton referencing a Myron Ebell piece in the Washington Times about a prank invitation to a CEQ reception for Lee Raymond.
Redacted Information
Most of these documents were delivered to Greenpeace after multiple Freedom of Information Act requests (see previous blog) and can now be found on the White House web page and our web site.
However, many of the documents we got back from our FOIA request looked like this one, from Cooney to the entire staff including Perino - mostly redacted text, leading Waxman's team to look for what was under the black marker lines... Read their report for all the details of the investigation
What Else Has Perino Seen Behind White House Doors?
One can only guess what else Dana Perino knows about the global warming Denial Machine within the White House. She has certainly had a front row seat. Maybe the press will ask her more questions about her experiences. Eventually they will all be held accountable...stay tuned.
smibboyet amazingly enough there are still tons of people who will insist that the present government is doing just jim-dandy and any problems you hear about are all lies of the "librul lefties"
choggieyes, terrifiing...and the next administration will do similar things, to distract and empower themselves....again, finger-waggers, global warming is being used as a tool....the planet changes come from whatever you read and smooth over your minds like apple butter....why are the voices of dissent not allowed their day in the media, or even into the media event in Bali?....Gore's bullshit Nobel lubricant is quite the symbolic tool as well.....(http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/site/article/122)
\Think about, (without degrees in any of the disciplines that you would need to verify the SO-CALLED, "experts" data rationally,which the loudest criers of GW DON'T HAVE) the facts....the simple facts-
The earth belches more CO2 than we ever will, and the sun and the dance shared with earth is never spoken of....in here lay the real answers to the cyclical dynamics of our planet AND for whatever reasons, the GW camp is using to give us a mixture of true false and meaningless information-lapped up by minds addicted to so-called facts.
fuck left and right, the world's empire builders play all sides against the middle-You want to stop human CO2 emmissions? What you really need to stop, is the economic systems of exchange and commerce, that make it happen. Stop using petroleum-stop paying into inefficient systems-get rid of $$$ and then be ever vigilant for future vampires......
the world is moving rapidly towards way worse than global cooling, warming, or par-boiling.....it is becoming filled with the distracted, the manipulated and the developmentally disabled....glad you found a kindred spirit for yer blog, mate.....the world needs fewer who think themselves into ineffectual knots, not another goddamned pep-rally
qrueldon't all of the initiatives about curbing global warming have to do with polluting less ? Since when is polluting less (for whatever reason) a bad thing ?
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