Fox, hen house, etc.

If you were selecting someone to run the White House Council on Environmental Quality, whom would you pick to preserve Earth's precious resources and help keep industry from running roughshod over the common person?

If you were Bush, you'd pick an energy industry lobbyist, trained as a lawyer, from the American Petroleum Institute.

Then, you'd have him bowdlerize official reports written by people who, unlike the appointee, have actual scientific training.

In handwritten notes on drafts of several reports issued in 2002 and 2003, the official, Philip A. Cooney, removed or adjusted descriptions of climate research that government scientists and their supervisors, including some senior Bush administration officials, had already approved. In many cases, the changes appeared in the final reports.

The dozens of changes, while sometimes as subtle as the insertion of the phrase "significant and fundamental" before the word "uncertainties," tend to produce an air of doubt about findings that most climate experts say are robust.

Link at the New York Times (registration required), via the indispensable Cursor.