Study finds White House manipulation on climate science

The White House has misled the public on climate science, a congressional report says.

from the December 12, 2007 edition

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What began in 2006 as a bipartisan investigation turned into a largely Democratic report. A "minority views" statement issued by Rep. Tom Davis (R) of Virginia, who was committee chairman in July 2006 when the probe began, called it a "political diatribe."

A call to the CEQ for comment on the report and for Dr. Connaughton's response was diverted to the main White House press office since he is at climate talks in Bali.

"We think this report is a thinly veiled attempt to distract attention from the administration's efforts to advance its commitment to the pursuit of sound environment, energy, and economic policy at the Bali summit," says Emily Lawrimore, a White House spokeswoman.

Concerning Connaughton's reported involvement in crafting an EPA legal opinion, she said that was not surprising.

"The finding that he was involved in the drafting of an EPA opinion is hardly news," Ms. Lawrimore says. "He's the adviser to the president on environmental policy, and it would be odd if he didn't offer his thoughts and input on environmental law and policy."

Mr. Piltz sees it differently. He served under the Bush administration until spring 2005, when he resigned and exposed White House editing of the national climate assessment. As a senior staffer with the US Climate Change Science Program, he also served under President Clinton and saw marked contrasts between the two. "It's true that every administration has its own policy, and there's always a tendency to shade your communications," Piltz says. "But the difference here is that the White House science office under previous administrations was not at war with the mainstream science community."

The report adds other details. For example, while changes to the testimony of Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, were widely reported, it was less known that other comments to Congress by Thomas Karl, director of the National Climatic Data Center, were also heavily edited, the report says.

Dr. Karl, it says, "was not allowed to comment in his written testimony that 'modern climate change is dominated by human influences,' that 'we are venturing into the unknown territory with changes in climate,' or that 'it is very likely (>95 percent probability) that humans are largely responsible for many of the observed changes in climate.' "

Instead of saying that global warming "is playing" a role in increased hurricane intensity, his comment became "may play" a role.

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