You Can Ring Myron Ebell, Ebell, Ebell

White House Tries to Undermine Government Research on Climate Change

The Bush White House seems to have teamed up with a conservative think tank, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, to undermine the credibility of government scientists doing research on climate change. Myron Ebell, a director of CEI, which has received more than $1 million in funding from ExxonMobil since 1998, last summer sent an email to an official at the president's Council on Environmental Quality that indicates the White House sought his group's assistance in playing down an EPA report that said humans are contributing to the warming of the planet. "Thanks for calling and asking for our help," Ebell wrote, then went on to suggest ways to cast doubt on the report. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is crying foul: "This email indicates a secret initiative by the administration to invite and orchestrate a lawsuit against itself seeking to discredit an official U.S. government report on global warming dangers." Other recently uncovered internal government documents point to further White House efforts to suppress research into climate change.