ExxonMobil Lobbyist: I Had the Authority

[Guest guest]

ExxonMobil Lobbyist: " I Had the Authority "

ExxonMobil lobbyist Philip Cooney yesterday 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_

(http://democrats.science.house.gov/Media/File/AdminLetters/BG__EPA_Media\

_Po

licy.pdf) 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_ (http://www.cspinet.org/integrity/watch/200703121.html#5)

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.

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[Guest guest]

Are these powerful new political appointees immune from Criminal

prosecution?

Also, how do these non-scientists get put in charge of such important

scientific decisionmaking - over the heads of people who have been working

with the issues involved for their whole careers? That just seems so

terribly wrong. And its not the way things were done in the past... before

just the last few years.

It resembles most closely the 'commisars' in the ex-USSR, who were political

appontees, often with little or no expertise in the fields they 'regulated'

but they had veto power over all decisions in the military, companies, etc.

I think that many of these decisions they make are so clearly wrong and

clearly hurt so many people that they should be held liable.

[Guest guest]

Go to this link below. It explains MUCH about why the rights of average

citizen have been trampled in various ways, including those who are ill from

mold, and are living under the Bush regime..opps! I mean Bush administration.

It has to do with the concept that less government is better government and

private citizens can do a better job. In many ways, I would think this is a

good concept. However, greed has been allowed to run rampant by those private

citizens (corporations) given the power under this theory. Commerce has

been given carte blanche to do whatever they want, with no moral or social

conscience in sight.

Our children will be the first generation in the United States to not live

better, or even as well as their parents. Under the current administration,

the Haliburtans of this world have been permitted to unethically abscond with

all the money and power.

_www.globalexchange.org/economy/econ101/neoliberalDefined.html_

(http://www.globalexchange.org/economy/econ101/neoliberalDefined.html)

Sharon

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