Cheney blocked testimony on public health dangers of global warming

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Jul 9, 2008 | by Frank Davies

WASHINGTON -- Vice President Dick Cheney's office last year blocked testimony on how global warming endangers public health, a former Environmental Protection Agency official said Tuesday.

It was the strongest evidence yet of White House efforts to censor data on climate change.

Jason Burnett, former top adviser on climate change to EPA chief Stephen Johnson, made several other damning revelations in a letter to Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., also released Tuesday.

Among them was new information about the recent disclosure that White House officials had refused to open an e-mail from the EPA detailing its findings on global warming.

When someone in the White House asked the EPA to say the e-mail had been sent in error, Burnett revealed in the letter to Boxer, he balked: "I explained that I could not do this because it was not true.''

Burnett appeared at a news conference with Boxer, who chairs the Senate Environment Committee, and appeared to be a reluctant whistle- blower. A Stanford-educated environmental economist and a grandson of high-tech entrepreneur David Packard, Burnett said he would not identify officials who blocked climate change data.

"I'm not interested in pointing fingers at individuals,'' said Burnett, a Democrat. "We need to turn to solutions to these challenges.''

A spokeswoman for Cheney said officials in that office would not comment on internal deliberations over policy.

In responding to a series of written questions from Boxer, Burnett provided new information on White House efforts to limit or downplay data about climate change:

In October, Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was prepared to testify before Boxer's committee that climate change "is likely to have a significant impact on health,'' warning of extreme heat, water-borne diseases and food and water scarcity.

But Cheney's office and the Council on Environmental Quality effectively deleted six pages of Gerberding's testimony, Burnett said.

"CEQ requested that I work with CDC to remove from the testimony any discussion of the human health consequences of climate change,'' he said.

In December, Johnson rejected California's landmark bid to regulate tailpipe emissions.

In a letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Johnson said that one reason for the denial was that while greenhouse gases were harmful, California was not unique and did not qualify for its own restrictions.

When Johnson testified before Boxer's committee in January, an official in Cheney's office wanted the phrase "greenhouse gas emissions harm the environment'' taken out of the testimony.

Burnett refused, and the phrase remained.

Boxer said Burnett's disclosures show "the administration's efforts have been about covering up the real dangers of global warming and hiding the facts from the public.''

Burnett, 31, has donated more than $100,000 to Democrats, including $3,600 to Sen. Barack Obama. Burnett has volunteered to work for the re-election campaign of Rep. Sam Farr, D-Salinas, and seek to build support for climate change legislation, a spokesman for Farr said.

Frank Davies can be reached at fdavies@mercurynews.com or 202- 662-8921.