Bush administration insiders still influencing climate debate
In yesterday's televised announcement of the landmark Environmental Protection Agency ruling that greenhouse gases threaten health and the environment and can be regulated under the Clean Air Act, Administrator Lisa Jackson remarked that more has been done to tackle the problem of global warming in the past 11 months than was done over the last eight years.
It was a not-so-subtle dig at the previous president's foot-dragging on climate. However, Bush administration insiders -- some of whom deliberately misrepresented the science on warming -- continue to influence in the national debate over climate change, according to a new report from the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
In researching "Smoke Screen: How Bush Insiders Distorted -- and Still Influence -- America's Debate Over Climate Change," CREW obtained documents that show many former Bush administration staffers went to work on behalf of oil, gas and mining interests. In all, CREW identified at least 22 former Bush administration officials who made the jump to polluting industry, 14 as officially registered lobbyists.
"These alumni of the Bush climate team continue to shape and confuse the debate over global warming," says CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan. "They may have changed their uniforms, but they're still playing for the same team."
Some of the former Bush officials now working on behalf of dirty energy interests, according to CREW's report:
* James L. Connaughton, President Bush's chief environmental advisor and chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality from 2001 to 2009, went on to work as an executive vice president for Constellation Energy of Maryland.
* Philip Cooney served as CEQ's chief of staff from 2001 to 2005, when he left amid controversy over his editing of climate reports to cast doubt on the science. He went to work for Texas-based oil giant Exxon Mobil.
* Replacing Cooney at CEQ, Khary Cauthen left the position the following year and became a registered lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute.
* Martin Hall succeeded Cauthen at CEQ and stayed through the end of the administration, when he went to work for Ohio-based electric utility FirstEnergy as vice president of energy policy.
* William Holbrook served as CEQ's communications director from 2003 to 2005, later becoming communications director for the National Petrochemical and Refinery Association.
* Elizabeth Stolpe, CEQ's associate director for toxics and environmental protection from 2001 to 2006, went on to work as a registered lobbyist for Shell Oil, a Dutch conglomerate with U.S. operations based in Houston.
Other Bush administration insiders have gone on to work directly for -- or for public-relations firms representing -- companies with a big stake in the climate debate. They include oil giants Chevron and Valero; electric utilities Ameren and North Carolina-based Duke Energy; and coal companies Peabody, Arch Coal and Alliance Resource Partners.
"Through lobbying and industry-manufactured 'grassroots' activities, these individuals continue to influence and confuse the debate over global warming and hamper the efforts of the current administration to help establish a public consensus on this issue," the report concludes.
Only 36% of the U.S. public now believes that globaltemperatures are rising as a result of human activity -- down from 47%.
It was a not-so-subtle dig at the previous president's foot-dragging on climate. However, Bush administration insiders -- some of whom deliberately misrepresented the science on warming -- continue to influence in the national debate over climate change, according to a new report from the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
In researching "Smoke Screen: How Bush Insiders Distorted -- and Still Influence -- America's Debate Over Climate Change," CREW obtained documents that show many former Bush administration staffers went to work on behalf of oil, gas and mining interests. In all, CREW identified at least 22 former Bush administration officials who made the jump to polluting industry, 14 as officially registered lobbyists.
"These alumni of the Bush climate team continue to shape and confuse the debate over global warming," says CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan. "They may have changed their uniforms, but they're still playing for the same team."
Some of the former Bush officials now working on behalf of dirty energy interests, according to CREW's report:
* James L. Connaughton, President Bush's chief environmental advisor and chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality from 2001 to 2009, went on to work as an executive vice president for Constellation Energy of Maryland.
* Philip Cooney served as CEQ's chief of staff from 2001 to 2005, when he left amid controversy over his editing of climate reports to cast doubt on the science. He went to work for Texas-based oil giant Exxon Mobil.
* Replacing Cooney at CEQ, Khary Cauthen left the position the following year and became a registered lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute.
* Martin Hall succeeded Cauthen at CEQ and stayed through the end of the administration, when he went to work for Ohio-based electric utility FirstEnergy as vice president of energy policy.
* William Holbrook served as CEQ's communications director from 2003 to 2005, later becoming communications director for the National Petrochemical and Refinery Association.
* Elizabeth Stolpe, CEQ's associate director for toxics and environmental protection from 2001 to 2006, went on to work as a registered lobbyist for Shell Oil, a Dutch conglomerate with U.S. operations based in Houston.
Other Bush administration insiders have gone on to work directly for -- or for public-relations firms representing -- companies with a big stake in the climate debate. They include oil giants Chevron and Valero; electric utilities Ameren and North Carolina-based Duke Energy; and coal companies Peabody, Arch Coal and Alliance Resource Partners.
"Through lobbying and industry-manufactured 'grassroots' activities, these individuals continue to influence and confuse the debate over global warming and hamper the efforts of the current administration to help establish a public consensus on this issue," the report concludes.
Only 36% of the U.S. public now believes that globaltemperatures are rising as a result of human activity -- down from 47%.
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Sue Sturgis
Sue is the editorial director of Facing South and the Institute for Southern Studies.