Oil Lobbyist Becomes White House Climate Science Editor

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In a lengthy memo Rick S. Piltz, a former senior associate in the Climate Change Science Program, revealed that U.S. government climate research reports had been edited by a White House official, Philip A. Cooney, to emphasize doubts about climate change. According to Piltz's memo Cooney, a former "climate team leader" and lobbyist with the American Petroleum Institute, changed one 2002 document to "create an enhanced sense of scientific uncertainty about climate change and its implications." In March this year Piltz resigned and subsequently contacted the Government Accountability Project, a whistleblower protection organization. A white House spokeswoman, Michele St. Martin, told the New York Times that Cooney would not be available to speak to reporters. "He's not a cleared spokesman," she said. Myron Ebell from the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a corporate-funded think tank, defended the editing as necessary for "consistency."