Ex-Aide: Cheney Nixed CDC Report Testimony

Findings On Climate Change's Health Effects Dropped At VP Office's Urging, Former EPA Official Says

(AP)  Vice President Dick Cheney's office pushed for major deletions in congressional testimony on the public health consequences of climate change, fearing the presentation by a leading U.S. health official might make it harder to avoid regulating greenhouse gases, a former environment official maintains.

When six pages were cut from testimony on climate change and public health by the head of the Centers for Disease Control last October, the White House insisted the changes were made because of reservations raised by White House advisers about the accuracy of the science.

But Jason K. Burnett, until last month the senior adviser on climate change to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson, says that Cheney's office was deeply involved in getting nearly half of the CDC's original draft testimony removed.

"The Council on Environmental Quality and the office of the vice president were seeking deletions to the CDC testimony (concerning) ... any discussions of the human health consequences of climate change," Burnett has told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

The three-page letter, a response to an inquiry by Sen. Barbara Boxer, a Democrat and the panel's chairwoman, was obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press. Boxer planned a news conference later in the day.

Burnett, 31, a lifelong Democrat who resigned his post last month as associate deputy EPA administrator because of disagreements over the agency's response to climate change, describes deep political concerns at the White House, including in Cheney's office, about linking climate change directly to public health or damage to the environment.

Scientists believe manmade pollution is warming the earth and if the process is not reversed it will cause significant climate changes that pose broad public health problems from increases in disease to more injuries from severe weather.

Senate and House committees have been trying for months to get e-mail exchanges and other documents to determine the extent of political influence on government scientists, but have been rebuffed.

The letter by Burnett for the first time suggests that Cheney's office was deeply involved in downplaying the impacts of climate change as related to public health and welfare, Senate investigators believe.

Cheney's office also objected last January over congressional testimony by Administrator Johnson that "greenhouse gas emissions harm the environment."

An official in Cheney's office "called to tell me that his office wanted the language changed" with references to climate change harming the environment deleted, Burnett said. Nevertheless, the phrase was left in Johnson's testimony.

Cheney's office and the White House Council on Environmental Quality worried that if key health officials provided detailed testimony about global warming's consequences on public health or the environment, it could make it more difficult to avoid regulating carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, Burnett believes.

The EPA currently is examining whether carbon dioxide, a leading greenhouse gas, poses a danger to public health and welfare. The Supreme Court has said if it does, it must be regulated under the Clean Air Act.

Nowhere were these White House concerns more apparent than when CDC Director Julie Gerberding, the head of the government's premier public health watchdog, testified about climate change and public health before Boxer's committee last October. The White House deleted six of the original 14 pages of Gerberding's testimony, including a list of likely public health impacts of global warming.

The White House, at the urging of Cheney's office, "requested that I work with CDC to remove from the testimony any discussion of the human health consequences of climate change," wrote Burnett.

[ioweign]

(AP) Vice President *** Cheney''s office pushed for major deletions in congressional testimony on the public health consequences of climate change, fearing the presentation by a leading U.S. health official might make it harder to avoid regulating greenhouse gases, a former environment official maintains.

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Cheney can do that but they will come after me for taking those "DO NOT REMOVE" tags off my mattress.

Something isn''t right here...

[bobnjersey]

[Does anyone knows how I can get a picture taken with the most corrupted VP in the history of the USA? I wish to show my grandchildren I meet this person.]
[Posted by lovegetpeace at 06:19 PM : Jul 08, 2008]

photoshop by adobe software is likely to be your best bet.

[whiskyrocker]

CROOK

[justicenow08]

This is so blatantly illegal and unconstitutional. The entire Bush Administration must be im-peach-ed (sorry c b s news is censoring any talk about im peach ment when i post)

They must be IM-PEACH-ED for war crimes and for shredding the consitution time and time again.

Yet the democrats in congress have said that "im-peach-ment is off the table"!!!! I thought we put them in congress to stop the war in iraq, stop the patriot act and violations of the consitution.

to date they have re-authorized funding for iraq multiple occaisions, they voted immunity for telecom companies, they voted to re-authorize the patriot act etc. When a few weeks ago Dennis Kucinich submitted 35 articles of im-peach-ment to congress and again nancy pelosi said "impeachment if off the table"!!!

These acts are criminal, we must take our democracy back, vote for third party canidates NADER or BARR

[o2bewealthy]

What''s happened to this country? 232 years ago, we took our country back from the oppressors. Now all we do is whine and moan on news comment board. We call for impeachment or war crimes trials on one hand, while we sit back and take our kids to soccer practice and stay up late to watch TV. Does anyone really think anything is going to be done about the most self-serving administration in living history? I have more than serious doubts.

[newsjunky5]

"florida sits on top of a natural flotation device ... it''''''''s mentioned in the bible. - Posted by bobnjersey"
-----------------------------------

Normally I''m against more domestic drilling, but in this case I''ll make an exception.

[formrusmcsgt]

Another case of a man on government time advocating lying to the country.

Disgusting.

[commuter16]

As with everything that this administration belives in, if it impacts the energy sector of the ecomony it is to muted. Carbon dioxid doesn''t exit--it''s the figment of some "wakcy" scientists imagination (forget the fact it is in our enviorment)

[tastepolice]

"Dickkk Cheney = Traitor, War Criminal, Mass Murderer, Liar, Thief, Drunk, All-Around Scumbag. Nuff Said...."

How sad is it that "unsafe hunter" doesn''t have the severity to make that list?

[vnveteran72]

Dickkk Cheney = Traitor, War Criminal, Mass Murderer, Liar, Thief, Drunk, All-Around Scumbag. Nuff Said....