ExxonMobil Lobbyist: "I Had the Authority"

ExxonMobil lobbyist Philip Cooney on Monday admitted making 181 editing changes to climate change reports while serving as chief of staff for the White House Council on Environmental Quality. In sworn testimony before the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, Cooney said he relied on a 2001 report prepared by the National Academy of Sciences. "I had the authority and responsibility to make recommendations to the documents in question, under an established interagency review process," Cooney said. Cooney spent 15 years working as a lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute before assuming his role at the White House.

Several Democrats questioned Cooney's objectivity. "When I look at the role you played at API and at the White House, they seem virtually identical," Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said. The issue of censorship is also being pursued by the House Science and Technology Committee, which sent letters to the heads of 11 agencies last week asking how they handle media requests for scientific information. The letters were prompted in part by revelations earlier this month that the Fish and Wildlife Service had instructed employees in Alaska not to discuss climate change, polar bears, or sea ice while traveling in countries around the Arctic region. The House last week passed a whistleblower protection act that would prohibit political appointees and high-ranking agency officials from interfering with government scientists' right to publish and speak out on public issues.

Reprinted from the Center for Science in the Public Interest's "Integrity in Science Watch" newsletter.