White House tweaks the truth?

Following yesterday’s post about the White House Press Secretary’s ignorance of basic US history, comes the news (shock, horror: I can hardly believe it!) that the White House may be guilty of manipulating information about climate change. A report from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is the result of a 16 month investigation into the Bush administration amidst allegations that the White House attempted to control which climate change experts could speak to reporters.

The report concludes that: “The Bush Administration has engaged in a systematic effort to manipulate climate change science and mislead policy makers and the public about the dangers of global warming. (It has) exerted unusual control over the public statements of federal scientists on climate change issues“. The most shameful activity occured in 2003 when presidential environmental adviser, James Connaughton, helped edit a draft legal opinion from the Environmental Protection Agency that denied the EPA had the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

The report goes on to say that the White House:

• was “particularly active in stifling [scientists'] discussions of the link between increased hurricane intensity and global warming.”

• sought “to minimize the significance and certainty of climate change by extensively editing government climate change reports”.

Thankfully, the report has been written by a Democratic majority who are intent on surfacing what reporters and journalists have apparently known for years. Shameful. Thank goodness there is less than a year before Bush goes but what will be the cost of his legacy?

Source: CS Monitor