Philip Cooney
Philip A. Cooney (born July 16, 1959) is a former member of the administration of United States President George W. Bush. Before being appointed to chair the Council on Environmental Quality, he was a lawyer and lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute. He was accused of doctoring and changing scientific reports about global warming by other agencies. He then resigned his position and denied any wrongdoing.
Career
American Petroleum Institute
Prior to working for the Bush administration, Cooney was a lawyer and
Bush administration
Cooney joined the
Government climate reports
In early 2005,
On June 3, 2002, Myron Ebell wrote a memo[6] to Cooney that was obtained by Greenpeace through an FOI request in 2003,[7] explaining how they were going to deal with the publication of the Climate Action Report 2002 by attacking United States Environmental Protection Agency chair Christine Todd Whitman, adding that he was helping to "drive a wedge between the President and those in the Administration who think they are serving the president's best interests by publishing this rubbish."
On August 11, 2003, Maine Attorney General G. Steven Rowe and Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal in a press release[8][9] called on United States Attorney General John Ashcroft
to investigate whether officials at the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) solicited a conservative Washington think tank to sue the federal government in order to invalidate a government document warning of the impacts of global warming.
The two state attorneys general obtained an email document through a Freedom of Information Act request that revealed a great intimacy between CEQ and the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) on strategizing about ways to undermine the United States' official reports and the authority of its officials.
[...] It appears that certain White House officials conspired with an anti-environmental special interest group to cause the lawsuit to be filed against the federal government.
On September 24, 2003,
On June 8, 2005,
In a section on the need for research into how warming might change water availability and flooding, he crossed out a paragraph describing the projected reduction of mountain glaciers and snowpack. His note in the margins explained that this was "straying from research strategy into speculative findings/musings."[11]
Cooney and his role in editing climate change reports were referenced in the documentaries: An Inconvenient Truth, The 11th Hour and Everything's Cool.[12]
During a March 2007 congressional hearing, Cooney conceded his role in altering reports to downplay the adverse effects of man-made
References
- ^ US climate scientists pressured on climate change 31 January 2007 New Scientist
- ^ Andrew Revkin (June 10, 2005). "Editor of Climate Report Resigns". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
- ^ Andrew Revkin (June 8, 2005). "Bush Aide Softened Greenhouse Gas Links to Global Warming". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
- ^ Andrew Revkin (June 15, 2005). "Ex-Bush Aide Who Edited Climate Reports to Join ExxonMobil". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
- ^ Rick S. Piltz (June 1, 2005). "On Issues of Concern about the Governance of the Climate Change Science Program" (PDF). pp. 10–11. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 28, 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-08.
- ^ Myron Ebell (June 3, 2002). "Phil, thanks for calling and". Archived from the original on 2007-02-08. Retrieved 2007-06-08.
- ^ Greenpeace (September 9, 2003). "Greenpeace Obtains Smoking-gun Memo: White House/Exxon Link". Archived from the original on 2007-05-15. Retrieved 2007-06-08.
- ^ Charles Dow. "Maine, Connecticut AGs Call On Ashcroft To Investigate White House Role In Lawsuit". maine.gov (Press release). Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-08.
- ^ Rowe, Steven (August 11, 2003). "Bush White House Charged With Conspiracy With Private Think" (Press release). Retrieved 2007-06-08.
- ^ "Lieberman seeks White House contacts regarding global warming lawsuit CEQ, think tank discussed how to "clean up this mess"" (Press release). Joseph Lieberman. September 24, 2003. Retrieved 2007-02-23.
- ^ Andrew Revkin (June 8, 2005). "Bush Aide Softened Greenhouse Gas Links to Global Warming". The New York Times.
- ^ Everythingscool.org Archived June 30, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Robert Lusetich (March 21, 2007). "Climate science was doctored". The Australian. Archived from the original on March 24, 2007.
- ^ "House Probe Turns to Role of Cheney's Office". March 20, 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-06-08.
External links
- Committee Examines Political Interference with Climate Science, March 19, 2007, with Cooney's testimony
- Profile at SourceWatch
- New York Times report on Cooney's resignation
- BBC News report on Cooney's resignation
- Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, press release September 24, 2003
- Philip Cooney timeline
- Cooney's political donations at newsmeat.com
- 60 minutes, Cooney's censorship of scientists