Gutting And Ignoring Climate Science Didn't Begin With Trump; A Reminder Of How Awful W Was

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Our story begins even before the world’s nations gathered in Kyoto in 1997 to negotiate a climate agreement. Before that meeting, the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate passed legislation that essentially prevented the U.S. from signing the Kyoto Protocol. Then, in March 2001, the newly-elected Bush administration announced that it would not implement the agreement. U.S. State Department papers showed the Bush administration thanking Exxon executives for the company’s “active involvement” in helping to determine climate change policy, including the U.S. stance on Kyoto.

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As then-EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson explained in a letter to GW Bush, “the latest climate change science does not permit a negative finding, nor does it permit a credible finding that we need to wait for more research.” Johnson also indicated that a positive endangerment finding was “agreed to at the Cabinet-level meeting.” Based on the science and the Supreme Court ruling, Johnson outlined steps the EPA should take to regulate GHGs. Unfortunately, Johnson was not allowed to implement this plan. Politico reports that Johnson was ready to advance on GHG pollution limits but Bush overruled him after hearing counter-arguments from the office of Vice President Dick Cheney, the Office of Management and Budget, the Transportation Department and, of course, Exxon.

Meanwhile, California tried to fill the regulatory gap by requesting in March 2005 that the federal government issue a “waiver” under the CAA. The waiver would enable the state to issue regulations on GHGs from motor vehicles that were stricter than federal standards. Before leaving office in 2008, the Bush administration rejected California’s request for a waiver.

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The Bush White House also pressured government scientists to suppress discussion of global warming and tailor their writings to fit the Bush administration’s skepticism. A 2007 survey of federal climate scientists conducted by the Union of Concerned Scientists found that “Nearly half of all respondents perceived or personally experienced pressure to eliminate the words ‘climate change,’ ‘global warming’ or other similar terms from a variety of communications.” One U.S. scientist resigned his job rather than give in to White House pressure to underreport global warming by the Chief of Staff of the CEQ, who had no scientific training. After the edited documents were released, the Chief of Staff resigned and was hired by Exxon several days later.

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https://www.resilience.org/stories/2019-10-16/an-insiders-look-at-the-shameful-history-of-epas-climate-inaction-and-why-we-must-turn-it-around/