Wednesday, June 15, 2005

You've Got A Friend - Again

Remember that White House official, the chief of staff for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the one with no scientific background who somehow took it upon himself to edit a series of scientific papers on climate change produced by government studies in order to water down scientific findings concerning global warming? Yeah, that one. Well, it seems he's moving on to...greener pastures?

A former White House official and onetime oil industry lobbyist whose editing of government reports on climate change prompted criticism from environmentalists will join Exxon Mobil Corp., the oil company said yesterday.

The White House announced over the weekend that Philip A. Cooney, chief of staff of its Council on Environmental Quality, had resigned. He previously had been head of the climate program at the American Petroleum Institute, the trade group for large oil companies.
I don't know what's worse - that the Bush administration would hire former oil industry lobbyists to hold key posts tasked with safeguarding the environment, or that so many Bush cabinet members end up taking private sector jobs, almost immediately upon resigning, with the very industries they were charged with overseeing in their capacity as public servants.

Oh wait, now I remember. What's worse is a former lobbyist who takes the job overseeing the same industry he lobbied for, and while at his post he edits scientific findings to align with the reckless propaganda of that industry, and then immediately rejoins the industry from whence he came in the first place when he leaves his post. That's worse.



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