Whistleblower chides Cheney

Recent revelations of a former high-level U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official have placed Vice President Dick Cheney in hot water over his climate-change initiatives.

Responding to an inquiry of Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), whistleblower Jason K. Burnett fingered Cheney’s office and the Council on Environmental Quality as the parties responsible for axing major portions of text from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report outlining the public health consequences associated with climate change, reported The Associated Press.

Under Cheney’s orders, Burnett claims, six of 14 pages of original testimony were deleted from CDC Director Julie Gerberding’s congressional testimony last fall. At the time, White House officials claimed the science behind the testimony varied from reports of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change.

Burnett’s response buoys a months-long probe by Senate and House committees into the White House, which has refused requests for e-mail exchanges between Cheney’s office and the scientists and their agencies.