Select Committee Investigation: Oil Industry Behind White House Switch on Global Warming

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Eben Burnham-Snyder, Select Committee, 202-225-4081

Select Committee Investigation: Oil Industry Behind White House Switch on Global Warming

President’s Chief of Staff Office, Cabinet Officials, Electric Utility Industry Originally Agreed to Regulation Of Emissions from Vehicles, Power Plants

WASHINGTON (July 18, 2008) – An investigation by the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming has found that members of government at the highest levels, including the office of President George W. Bush’s Chief of Staff and numerous heads of Cabinet departments, had decided to use the Clean Air Act to regulate global warming emissions not only from vehicles, but also from power plants, refineries, and other so-called stationary sources – but reversed their decision in the face of strong opposition from ExxonMobil and others within the oil industry, as well as from at least one senior adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney.

"This is the dysfunctions and motivations of the Bush administration laid bare," said Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Chairman of the Select Committee. "The fact that they can, with near unanimity, completely switch positions on global warming to please the oil industry is shocking, and yet disappointingly predictable."

The investigation by the Select Committee is based on an on-the-record interview with a former high-ranking EPA official, Jason Burnett, confidential discussions with other EPA staff, and review of EPA documents obtained in response to a Select Committee subpoena.

The full investigative report and transcript of the interview with Mr. Burnett is available on the Select Committee website here:

http://globalwarming.house.gov/tools/2q08materials/files/0110.pdf (report)

http://globalwarming.house.gov/tools/2q08materials/files/0109.pdf (transcript)

The report reveals the following major findings, among others:

--President Bush’s Deputy Chief of Staff Joel Kaplan and numerous heads of cabinet agencies --including Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, Office of Management and Budget’s Susan E. Dudley, and White House Council on Environmental Quality Chairman James L. Connaughton, among others -- and White House offices endorsed EPA’s finding that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public welfare, and EPA’s proposals that greenhouse gas emissions from both vehicles and stationary sources including power plants and refineries should be regulated under the Clean Air Act.

-- White House Deputy Chief of Staff Kaplan personally approved EPA’s plan to go forward with a positive endangerment finding, which would necessitate the regulation of greenhouse gas regulations for motor vehicles and fuels, as well as trigger regulation of stationary source emissions under the Clean Air Act.

--While electric utility representatives, including the Edison Electric Institute (which represents the nation’s major investor-owned utilities), agreed that it would be best for EPA to proceed with regulation of both vehicles and stationary sources using Clean Air Act authority, oil industry representatives from ExxonMobil, the American Petroleum Institute, and the National Petrochemicals and Refiners Association, adopted a "not on my watch" approach – arguing that such regulations would tarnish President Bush’s conservative anti-regulatory legacy, and should be delayed until the next President took office.

--Doing the oil industry’s bidding, the Bush administration reversed course on regulating heat-trapping emissions – opting to do nothing and leave it to the next president to respond to the serious environmental threat of global warming. This decision was made at the very highest level within the White House. The winning argument against regulatory action had the support of the Office of Vice President Cheney, including Vice President Cheney’s energy adviser, F. Chase Hutto III.

--Most of the cabinet secretaries and heads of White House offices who recently wrote letters opposing use of the Clean Air Act to regulate global warming emissions – which were appended to the release of EPA’s July 11, 2008 "Advance Notice of Proposed Regulation" – had previously supported regulation of both vehicles and stationary sources under the act.

The report follows months of action by Chairman Markey and the Select Committee to unearth decisions and findings on global warming within the Bush administration. Starting in January of 2008, Chairman Markey requested documents from Administrator Johnson, leading to a lengthy subpoena process which resulted in the Select Committee achieving exclusive access to December 2007 EPA global warming findings on regulating emissions that were eventually scuttled by the White House.

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