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Washington, D.C. -- Today Congressman David Wu admonished the Bush administration and the former head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, Philip Cooney, for manipulating scientific evidence and downplaying the link between the emission of greenhouse gases and global warming in government reports.
It was recently revealed that Mr. Cooney edited government reports on climate change to cast doubt on the effect of greenhouse gas emissions on global warming. It is widely agreed that while all administrations routinely review government reports, scientific reports should be reviewed by scientists. On Wednesday, it was announced that Mr. Cooney, former lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute, will resign his position to join Exxon Mobil Corporation.
"The actions taken by this administration and its staff with respect to the environment fundamentally undermine the integrity of the scientific process," said Congressman Wu. "My colleagues in Congress and I have an oversight responsibility to make sure that integrity of the scientific process is maintained no matter what the current political climate may be. There is always a limit to what we can do, whether it is technological or political, but we must exert our best efforts."
"Scientific research, at its core, is the systematic search to answer questions about the world around us, no matter what those answers turn out to be," Congressman Wu continued. "I am deeply concerned that something as reasonable and pragmatic as the scientific method could be co-opted for political purposes."
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