June 13, 2005 – The chief of staff for the White House council on environmental quality resigned his position just days after it was revealed that he routinely edited scientific reports on global warming, changing language in a way that suggests the phenomenon and its causes are widely debated.
The official, Philip Cooney, is accused of adding or changing the wording of several official reports on the relationship between greenhouse gasses and global warming. He is the immediate past head of the American Petroleum Association, an oil industry lobby group.
The revelations came from a former official with the US Climate Change Program, Rick S. Piltz, who released a signed letter through the government accountability project and provided documentation to the New York Times, which first reported the story Wednesday.
According to the Associated Press, the White House claimed Cooney’s resignation had nothing to do with Piltz’s charges, but justified the changes as part of routine review procedures.
