The Hindu , Friday, June 17, 2005

Correspondent : Staff Reporter

WASHINGTON: A senior White House official accused of doctoring government reports on climate change to play down the link between greenhouse gas emissions and global warming has taken a job with Exxon Mobil, the world's largest oil company. Philip Cooney, who resigned as chief of staff of the White House council on environment quality at the weekend, will begin work at the oil giant in the autumn. Politicians and environmental groups in Washington condemned the move on Wednesday. ``At a minimum it creates a terrible appearance,'' said Henry Waxman, a Democratic Congressman who sits on the committee for government reform. ``This is one of the fastest revolving doors I have seen.'' Kert Davies, the U.S. research director for Greenpeace, said: ``The cynical way to look at this is that Exxon Mobil has removed its sleeper cell from the White House and extracted him back to the mother ship.'' It emerged last week that Mr. Cooney, who has a law degree and no scientific training, watered down scientific papers on climate change and played up uncertainties in the scientific literature. He had previously worked for the American Petroleum Institute, a lobby group that was vocal in countering the virtual consensus among scientists that man-made emissions are warming the planet.

SOURCE : The Hindu, Friday, June 17, 2005