US: Democrats Say White House again Cozy with Big Oil

WASHINGTON - Democrats said Wednesday that the resignation of a former
official on the White House Council on Environmental Quality to join
ExxonMobil was an example of coziness between the Bush administration
and the oil industry, a charge denied by the White House.


Philip Cooney resigned as chief of staff of the White House council
last Friday, two days after The New York Times reported that he edited
some descriptions of climate research in a way that cast doubt on links
between greenhouse gas emissions and rising temperatures.


The White House has denied that Cooney watered down the impact of
global warming, and said that Cooney, who will work for Exxon in the
fall, had been looking for another job for some time.


"He had been looking to move on to other opportunities for some time
... a few months at least," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.
"It's unrelated in any way to the news reports of last week."


President Bush had not been aware that Cooney was taking a job at
Exxon, McClellan said. "We wish him well, we appreciate his service."


Democrats renewed longstanding criticism of close ties between the
administration and the oil industry, citing Cooney taking a position at
Exxon immediately after leaving the White House as an example. Cooney
had been brought into the administration after serving as a lobbyist
for the American Petroleum Institute, the main trade group for Big Oil.



"This is just one more example of how the Bush White House is bought
and sold by the very industries it is supposed to regulate," Howard
Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said.


"The Bush Administration has made it clear that when the chips are down
they stand on the side of protecting the oil industry and other elite
special interests, not the American people and the environment," Dean
said in a statement.


The criticism was lobbed on a day when Bush made a speech to promote
his energy agenda, in which he reiterated that the United States must
take steps to reduce its dependence on foreign oil.


"Our dependence on foreign oil is like a foreign tax on the American
dream. And that tax is growing every year," Bush said. "My
administration is doing all we can to help ease the problem."


Sen. John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat who ran against Bush in the
presidential election last year, said Bush's energy plan was not the
solution to rising energy costs or dependence on foreign oil.


"Instead, their energy policy is the place where cozy business
connections, secret deals and industry campaign contributions come
together to keep us dependent on foreign oil and keep consumers paying
through the nose at the pump," Kerry said.

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