Whistleblower: Cheney Wanted Cuts in Climate Change Testimony

July 8, 2008 — -- President Bush is in Japan pledging to do his best to put the U.S. on a long-term path to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050, but back in Washington a former Environmental Protection Agency official said staffers at the White House pressured him last year to retract an official finding, which was never made public, that those emissions "may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public welfare."

When he refused, former EPA official James Burnett maintains the White House simply didn't open his e-mail, because opening the e-mail would have made the finding official.

EPA Spokesperson Jonathan Shradar did not dispute Burnett's claims, but said the e-mail Burnett sent was a draft and was specifically about the effects of greenhouse gases as they had to do with legislation Congress was considering to regulate fuel economy.

Burnett, a Democratic party donor, also described being asked by Vice President Dick Cheney's office to heavily edit testimony that the director of the Centers for Disease Control, Julie Gerberding, gave before Congress last October.

Burnett said he refused, but the testimony was ultimately changed.

"This is the story of a White House and vice president's office that work together to squelch information, to squash it, to stop it from getting to the public so that there would be no information out there, so that there wouldn't be a push for them to act," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who appeared with Burnett at a press conference on Capitol Hill Tuesday. Boxer accused White House Press Secretary Dana Perino of lying about the redaction of Gerberding's testimony and engaging in a cover-up.

A White House spokesman denied there is a cover-up, pointing to a press release another lawmaker issued regarding the unreleased finding.

Boxer demanded that EPA Administrator Steve Johnson either locate the e-mailed finding Burnett sent to the White House or resign.

Boxer said the e-mail Burnett sent with the finding on the harmful effects of global warming is "lost in cyberspace" and needs to be "brought back down to earth."

She also called on Johnson to release all the relevant documents Burnett used to help draft the finding.

But the release of an expanded version of Burnett's finding could be in the works, eight months after he submitted his report.