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White House defends revisions of scientific reports on climate change

The White House scrambled into damage-control mode after The New York Times revealed yesterday that a former oil lobbyist had revised scientific government reports on climate change to enhance the appearance of uncertainty. Pushed in a press briefing to respond to charges that the edits made by Philip Cooney, chief of staff for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, were part of a pattern of science distortion and politicization by the administration, White House spokesflack Scott McClellan defended the changes as part of standard review procedure and claimed they didn't undermine the practice of sound science. "I'm going to tell what the facts are," he said. "And the facts are that there is an interagency review process with a number of agencies involved that are impacted by -- or that are involved in -- these decisions, in these reports. And many people have input into that interagency review process." Glad we got that all cleared up.