Consistently suppporting sound science

This NYT article--and a similar article in the Guardian--pretty clearly lay out what most of us already know: the industry is writing science policy when it comes to global warming.

"In handwritten notes on drafts of several reports issued in 2002 and 2003, the official, Philip A. Cooney, removed or adjusted descriptions of climate research that government scientists and their supervisors, including some senior Bush administration officials, had already approved.
Mr. Cooney is chief of staff for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the office that helps devise and promote administration policies on environmental issues. Before coming to the White House in 2001, he was the "climate team leader" and a lobbyist at the American Petroleum Institute, the largest trade group representing the interests of the oil industry. A lawyer with a bachelor's degree in economics, he has no scientific training."

And after all that emphasis on "sound science" in this administration! Further along in the article, it states that

"...Myron Ebell, who has long campaigned against limits on greenhouse gases as director of climate policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian group, said such editing was necessary for "consistency" in meshing programs with policy."

And boy have the Bush Administration, the CEI and the API been consistent! Some recent consistency follows:


"We want to know more about it [climate change]. It's easier to solve a problem when you know a lot about it."
--George W Bush, June 7 2005.

"Luckily, predictions of the extent of future warming are based on implausible scientific and economic assumptions, and the negative impacts of predicted warming have been vastly exaggerated."
--Competitive Enterprise Institute

"Oil and gas, along with other fossil fuels, may also be affecting our climate. How much is uncertain since changes are hard to measure and natural forces are also at work."
--American Petroleum Institute


" Technology is changing how we can approach energy, and the technology -- mating technology and energy independence from hydrocarbon also will produce a cleaner environment."
--George W Bush, June 7 2005.

"In the unlikely event that global warming turns out to be a problem, the correct approach is...long-term technological transformation"
--Competitive Enterprise Institute

"While U.S. oil and natural gas companies believe that uncertainties about climate change make it hard to justify mandatory, severe, near-term emission reductions, they are voluntarily reducing emissions in low-cost, common-sense ways, developing new technologies to ensure future progress, and investing millions of dollars in climate research."
--American Petroleum Institute


"You cannot leave developing nations out of the mix if you expect to have a cleaner world."
--George W Bush, June 7 2005.

"These costs [costs of Kyoto agreement] would eventually fall most heavily on the poorest nations in the world."
--Competitive Enterprise Institute


"I'm here to tell you what the facts are. And the facts are that our policies and our reports are based on the best available science, and that this administration is acting and leading the way when it comes to addressing the serious long-term challenge we face from climate change."
--Scott McClellan, White House press conference, June 8 2005