Cheney's Office Censored Warming Testimony

Political censorship of science information, especially on climate, kept on making big headlines in early July 2008 as it was revealed that Vice President Cheney's office blacked out scientific testimony on the public health consequences of climate change.

The story of how CDC Director Julie Gerberding's October 2007 testimony had been censored was not new. The new wrinkle came when a highly-placed whistleblower revealed that the censorship (denied by White House flak Dana Perino) had been supervised by Vice President Cheney's office.

Yes, that was the same VP who had gone to the mat on his right to keep secret what the oil, coal, and utility companies said to his energy policy task force as they set both energy and climate policy. The same oil companies whose former lobbyist, Phil Cooney, had edited climate science documents to their liking when he was chief of staff at the White House's CEQ. And who rehired Cooney in a heartbeat when the embarrassing story forced his resignation.

• "Cheney Wanted Cuts in Climate Change Testimony," Associated Press, July 8, 2008, by H. Josef Hebert.
• "Cheney's Staff Cut Testimony On Warming," Washington Post, July 9, 2008, by Juliet Eilperin.
• "Cheney's Office and the Course of Climate Policy," Dot Earth, New York Times, July 9, 2008, by Andrew C. Revkin.
• "Document Says Oil Chiefs Met With Cheney Task Force," Washington Post, November 16, 2005, by Dana Milbank and Justin Blum.
• Previous Stories: WatchDogs of April 23, 2008; March 22, 2007; and May 18, 2005.