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Cheney's Office Pushed for Trims to EPA Congressional Testimony
Vice President Dick Cheney's office apparently worked to cut swaths of the Center for Disease Control's congressional testimony on the effects of greenhouse gases.
The information was revealed in a letter from recently-resigned associate deputy EPA administrator, Jason Burnett, obtained by the AP, to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA):
"The Council on Environmental Quality and the office of the vice president were seeking deletions to the CDC testimony (concerning) ... any discussions of the human health consequences of climate change," Burnett has told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.. . . The letter by Burnett for the first time suggests that Cheney's office was deeply involved in downplaying the impacts of climate change as related to public health and welfare, Senate investigators believe.
Cheney's office also objected last January over congressional testimony by Administrator Johnson that "greenhouse gas emissions harm the environment."
An official in Cheney's office "called to tell me that his office wanted the language changed" with references to climate change harming the environment deleted, Burnett said. Nevertheless, the phrase was left in Johnson's testimony.
As we've reported, the Senate and House have been trying for months to check communications and other documents on the role of political influence in the EPAs work.
Burnett left the EPA in June after disagreements over the "agency's response to climate change":
The White House, at the urging of Cheney's office, "requested that I work with CDC to remove from the testimony any discussion of the human health consequences of climate change," wrote Burnett."CEQ contacted me to argue that I could best keep options open for the (EPA) administrator (on regulating carbon dioxide) if I would convince CDC to delete particular sections of their testimony," Burnett said in the letter to Boxer.
But he said he refused to press CDC on the deletions because he believed the CDC's draft testimony was "fundamentally accurate."
[Late update]: To view the letter from Burnett to Boxer, click here.
Comments (20)
Well, chalk up another lie for Undisclosed Location.
July 8, 2008 10:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
Betcha there will be a lot of Tell-Alls written after this administration is over. There will be a whole class of people, current administration employees, that will have a hard time finding work and will need the money.
July 8, 2008 10:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
Needless to say, their policies inflict the most damage to to the environment, however it would be interesting to know the carbon footprint of the Bush Administration...
July 8, 2008 10:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
How much carbon is there in excrement?
July 8, 2008 12:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Pretty much every negative thing that was ever alleged about this administration has eventually been borne out.
July 8, 2008 11:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
Holy hell; what has this guy NOT screwed with? THAT would be a story.
Cheney has been behind all of the machinations of this administration. W is too stupid, plain and simple.
And what is going to happen?
Oooh, booga booga, the fury of the blogosphere will give them something to laugh about. That's the biggest slapdown they are going to get. They'll laugh as they feed more evidence to the shredder or hand it ala Bloch to the geek squad.
July 8, 2008 11:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
Many is the time I have asked friends and colleagues the following:
"Name anything this administration has touched that they haven't f....ed up."
The answer is a deafening silence.
July 8, 2008 2:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
If Obama is elected, I wonder if the Bush gang will hire Ollie North, Fawn Hall, and their shredding machine to clean up the sh**pile Bush/Cheney created.
July 8, 2008 11:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
As long as repugs hold enough seats in both Houses to de-rail Democrat attempts to make Bu$h, Cheney, and their motley crews of fools answer for their mis-deeds they will continue to express a devil-may-care attitude.
Sad fact ... no one has the ability, let alone the power, to make either of them answerable for their actions.
It'll take the Democrats gaining a greater than 60% majority in both Houses in November, but by then both will be out of office and history - practically untouchable by the long-arm-of-the-law.
So you can thank the current repug members of both Houses for allowing them both to break the law without the fear of having to answer for their actions.
July 8, 2008 12:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sounds like someone in congress needs to write a Strongly Worded Letter to the White House. That usually fixes things.
July 8, 2008 12:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
And the list goes on, but nothing will come of it. Tim Russert dies from a sudden heart attack at 58 and Darth Vadar here seems to keep on ticking. Where is the fairness in that?!
July 8, 2008 1:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
If you really want to get depressed just remember that incoming presidents do not ever attempt to investigate and prosecute members of the outgoing administration. Cheney will never be even slightly threatened by legal actions. He has committed the perfect series of crimes. He will always be celebrated where ever Republicans slink off to to meet and plot.
July 8, 2008 1:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's always helpful to remember the religious and even apocalyptic sensibility that permeates this Administration; if there are scientific truths, they are trumped by the truth at the end of time, and one is doing god's work to hasten the advent of the second coming. The slow poisoning of the planet is a fair trade-off for the unimpeded spreading of Christo-capitalist ideology. Thwarting (secular) government is simply one of those noble acts necessary for constructing the City of God.
I don't know if Bush has got Cheney, et al. on the 'daily devotional' of Oswald Chambers Will to be Faithful, but here's what Bush read this morning -- Bush and Cheney aren't politicians, they're theocrats:
"A person’s will is embodied in the actions of the whole person. I cannot give up my will— I must exercise it, putting it into action. I must will to obey, and I must will to receive God’s Spirit. When God gives me a vision of truth, there is never a question of what He will do, but only of what I will do. The Lord has been placing in front of each of us some big proposals and plans. The best thing to do is to remember what you did before when you were touched by God. Recall the moment when you were saved, or first recognized Jesus, or realized some truth. It was easy then to yield your allegiance to God. Immediately recall those moments each time the Spirit of God brings some new proposal before you.
". . . choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. . . ." Your choice must be a deliberate determination— it is not something into which you will automatically drift. And everything else in your life will be held in temporary suspension until you make a decision. The proposal is between you and God— do not "confer with flesh and blood" about it ( Galatians 1:16 ). With every new proposal, the people around us seem to become more and more isolated, and that is where the tension develops. God allows the opinion of His other saints to matter to you, and yet you become less and less certain that others really understand the step you are taking. You have no business trying to find out where God is leading— the only thing God will explain to you is Himself.
Openly declare to Him, "I will be faithful." But remember that as soon as you choose to be faithful to Jesus Christ, "You are witnesses against yourselves . . ." ( Joshua 24:22 ). Don’t consult with other Christians, but simply and freely declare before Him, "I will serve You." Will to be faithful— and give other people credit for being faithful too. "
July 8, 2008 1:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
rsl, I don't doubt that W. buys this business of Ozzie's, so that when the shrub talks to himself, one of his voices is playing God; but I don't know about Cheney.
Jesus is just another useful tool in his opportunists bag of tricks. Whatever will get him to the money and the power can be included in his arsenal. If that means playing along with deluded Christians, amen then.
July 8, 2008 2:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bush, Cheney and the rest of Bush's cabinet are enemies of the rule of law, enemies of the citizens of this country, and enemies of democracy, truth and justice.
Our congress has repeatedly let us down...a shameful history of the decline and fall of the United States of America.
This last 4th of July was the end of a free America.
July 8, 2008 1:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
The head of the so-called "Council on Environmental Quality" is James L. Connaughton, formerly a lobbyist for power industry and large electricity users, including the asbestos industry (via SourceWatch.) The previous head came from the American Petroleum Institute. Yet another office that for three decades provided useful scientific information to inform policy development, turned into an Orwellian joke by this corrupt administration.
July 8, 2008 2:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Even a lackey like Christine Todd Whitman couldn't work with this dude!
July 8, 2008 3:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Even a lackey like Christine Todd Whitman couldn't work with this dude!"
Wasn`t she the one who gave the A-OK to work without masks at ground zero after 9/11?
July 8, 2008 4:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
how the fuck do you change "Testimony"
by definition, "Testimony" can't be "Changed"
if you give testimony, you can't use a time machine to go back and change it
I suspect that we're talkin bout a "Deposition", or other form of evidence submitted in written form
July 8, 2008 6:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
May you shoot an infected duck and acquire a fowl respiratory disease!
July 9, 2008 10:33 AM | Reply | Permalink