Monday, March 20, 2006

POLITICS vs SCIENCE - Climate Change "Rewriting The Science"

In 60 Minutes piece "Rewriting The Science" last Sunday is the perfect example of this Whitehouse, and the insiders from industry, purposely misleading the Congress and the people.

You have to read or view the piece to believe just how they mislead us, including our own Congress, and just how much the Whitehouse is in the pockets of industry. In this case the energy industry as represented by the heavy editing of climate reports were co-written by Rick Piltz for the federal Climate Change Science Program by Phil Cooney.



Piltz says he is responsible for editing the report and sending a review draft to the White House.

Asked what happens, Piltz says: "It comes back with a large number of edits, handwritten on the hard copy by the chief-of-staff of the Council on Environmental Quality."

Asked who the chief of staff is, Piltz says, "Phil Cooney." Piltz says Cooney is not a scientist.

"He's a lawyer. He was a lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute, before going into the White House," he says.


The piece actually shows the draft, with many, many hand written changes by Cooney. All the charges slant the report to make climate change much less immediate and, more importantly, to protect Cooney's handlers (the energy industry). Example...

In a report, Piltz says Cooney added this line “… the uncertainties remain so great as to preclude meaningfully informed decision making. …”


I encourage readers to read or view this piece.

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