On Wed, 9 Jul 2008 06:27:09 -0700 (PDT), boo-radley <mpmull2u@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote:
>On Jul 8, 1:08 pm, "Docky Wocky" <mrch...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> Senator Barbara Boxer, liberal Democrat of California, who chairs, and
is
>> ...behind the Senate Environment Committee,
>> leveled her newest attack today against the vice president and other
>> administration officials, say they were "recklessly" seeking to censor
>> testimony about the unproven supposed dangers of global warming...
>Except the story was confirmed by the EPA official who testified. Too
>Bad try again
>
>Cheney's Staff Cut Testimony On Warming
>Health Threats at Issue, Ex-EPA Official Says
>
>By Juliet Eilperin
>Wa****ngton Post Staff Writer
>Wednesday, July 9, 2008; A01
>
>Members of Vice President Cheney's staff censored congressional
>testimony by a top federal official about health threats posed by
>global warming, a former Environmental Protection Agency official said
>yesterday.
>
>In a letter to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), former EPA deputy
>associate administrator Jason K. Burnett said an official from
>Cheney's office ordered last October that six pages be edited out of
>the testimony of Julie L. Gerberding, director of the Centers for
>Disease Control and Prevention. Gerberding had planned to say that the
>"CDC considers climate change a serious public health concern."
>
>Boxer, who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee,
>said the administration sought the changes for fear that Gerberding's
>testimony could trigger new controls under the Clean Air Act that
>would regulate greenhouse-gas emissions from burning fossil fuels. The
>White House has opposed mandatory limits and has insisted that
>voluntary measures and increased research are the best ways to address
>the issue.
>
>"The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and the Office of the Vice
>President (OVP) were seeking deletions to the CDC testimony," Burnett,
>31, a Stanford-trained economist and a Democrat, wrote in response to
>an inquiry from Boxer's committee. "CEQ requested that I work with CDC
>to remove from the testimony any discussion of the human health
>consequences of climate change."
>
>Several media outlets, including The Wa****ngton Post, re****ted at the
>time of Gerberding's testimony that the administration had revised her
>proposed remarks. White House officials justified the changes by
>citing doubts about the scientific basis of her testimony.
>
>Burnett -- a grandson of high-tech entrepreneur David Packard and a
>member of the Packard Foundation's board of trustees -- has given more
>than $129,000 to Democratic campaigns in recent years, including
>$3,600 to presidential candidate Barack Obama (Ill.). He did not
>identify who in the vice president's office had called him.
>
>"I'm not interested in pointing fingers at any individual," he said at
>a news conference with Boxer, adding that he is focused on how the
>government will address climate change in response to a Supreme Court
>decision last year requiring the EPA to deal with rising carbon
>dioxide emissions. "I'm interested in helping inform the next
>administration to help make those decisions, while recognizing
>Congress could act to pass a better law."
>
>Boxer demanded that, in light of Burnett's allegations, EPA
>Administrator Stephen L. Johnson turn over "every do***ent related to
>the agency's finding that global warming poses a danger to the public"
>-- a determination the EPA reached late last year in a do***ent that
>has never been made public. On that basis, the senator said, the
>agency must issue regulations to limit the emissions.
>
>The White House declined to open the EPA e-mail containing that
>finding, which Burnett sent on Dec. 5, leaving the recommendation in
>limbo. Burnett was responsible for climate change issues at EPA.
>
>"I'm calling on Mr. Johnson to act now, and if he doesn't have the
>courage or the strength or determination to act, he should resign,"
>Boxer said.
>
>EPA spokesman Jonathan Shradar said Johnson will not provide the
>do***ents, but added that Boxer and others will be able to read about
>the agency's findings in detail when it releases its proposed
>regulation of greenhouse gases, expected within days.
>
>"The administrator is glad to see Senator Boxer agrees that we need a
>robust and complete advance notice of proposed rulemaking that will
>come out as soon as Friday," Shradar said, adding that "a lot of those
>do***ents" Boxer is seeking will be in the proposal. "I don't know if
>she's just now working on her summer reading list or what."
>
>Cheney spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride declined to discuss Burnett's
>allegations, saying, "We don't comment on internal deliberations." But
>White House spokesman Tony Fratto noted that officials in past
>administrations have vetted congressional testimony from agency
>officials.
>
>"There's absolutely nothing unusual here in terms of the inter-agency
>review process, whether it's testimony, rules or anything else,"
>Fratto said in an interview. "The process exists so that other offices
>and departments have the op****tunity to comment and offer their views.
>There's nothing unusual about that, there's nothing nefarious about
>that, and there's nothing different here from previous
>administrations."
>
>CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said that any changes to Gerberding's
>planned testimony were made "during the normal editing process" and
>that she "spoke openly and fully without constraint" while testifying
>before the Senate.
>
>Frank O'Donnell, who heads the advocacy group Clean Air Watch, said
>the revelations confirmed that the vice president has been steering
>environmental policy during President Bush's tenure.
>
>"For years, we've suspected that Cheney was the puppeteer for
>administration policy on global warming," O'Donnell said. "This kiss-
>and-tell account appears to confirm the worst."
>
>Boxer was particularly harsh in *****sing earlier comments made by
>White House spokeswoman Dana Perino, who in October said that some of
>Gerberding's original draft "did not com****t with" the 2007 re****t of
>the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
>
>"This was a lie," Boxer said, reading Perino's quote. "She said it was
>in contradiction with the IPCC re****t. It wasn't."
>
>The IPCC re****t raised many of the same points that Gerberding did in
>her original testimony, but Bush's science adviser, John H. Marburger
>III, issued a statement in October saying that "there was an overall
>lack of precision" in Gerberding's draft concerning "the specific
>nature of some climate change impacts on human health."
>
>Yesterday, Fratto said White House officials "stand 100 percent behind
>what Dana said."
Thanks for posting that.
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