We Don't Stand a Chance

On June 8th The New York Times reported that a White House official, Philip Cooney, White House Council on Environmental Quality chief of staff, had "edited" government reports on global warming in such a way that links between fossil-fuel emissions and climate change were substantially played down. Cooney has no scientific background, and before coming to the White House, had been the "climate team leader" and a lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute.

Four days after that article, on June 12, the word from Agence France Presse was that Mr. Cooney had resigned. And that his resignation had nothing at all, no no no, to do with the first paragraph of this entry. Completely unrelated. No, Mr. Cooney had long been thinking about changing jobs, and had a lot of vacation time accrued, so he just thought he'd take the summer off.

Today we hear from the New York Times that Mr. Cooney has taken a job with - no, can you believe it? - Exxon/Mobil. Yes, the fossil fuel emissions giant itself!

In an article titled Exxon Merges with White House, The Progress Report tells us:

"Yesterday, it was announced that the former chief of staff of the White House's Council on Environmental Quality, Philip Cooney, who resigned five days ago after it was disclosed that he had doctored government climate change reports in favor of the oil industry's position, has been hired by Exxon Mobil. While Cooney will now sit at the other side of the table at the White House's energy meetings, his job will remain the same -- to do the bidding of the oil industry."

Please do read the rest of the Progress Report article. Every bit of it. There's lots of great links, both to the history of this story, as well as the power and sway Exxon has held over this White House.

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