Dick Cheney aide getting global warming portfolio at Energy?

From his post in Vice President Dick Cheney's office, F. Chase Hutto III has had his hands in a variety of issues.

There was the debate over clean air and global warming. By all accounts, he helped scuttle the course favored by scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency for stronger regulations intended to fight emissions of greenhouse gases, as Countdown to Crawford reported a month ago.

There was the time the administration was considering greater restrictions on smog-forming ozone; he opposed them. A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration rule to protect North Atlantic right whales? The Bush administration is reportedly about to scale it back. Hutto was in deep on that one, too.

His role was tracked by the Washington Post, which reports today that the administration has a new job in mind for him: He will be promoted, the Post reports, from his staff position in Cheney's office to assistant secretary of energy.

The result: One of the most ardent opponents of government regulation within the government would be put in a key decision-making position where global warming policies are set.

Said Jason K. Burnett, who as a deputy associate administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency tangled with Hutto over global warming until leaving the government: "I can't think of a case where Chase advocated more environmental or health protections."

As for placing Hutto in the Energy Department at this late date, the Post, quoting Francesca Grifo of the Union of Concerned Scientists, notes: "In coming months, Hutto could make policy decisions that the next administration would find difficult to reverse quickly."

-- James Gerstenzang

Photo credit: Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Brad Arnold]

Hutto getting a global warming portfolio at Energy is completely consistent with the Bush administration's record these eight years. Frankly, the only thing new is the LA Times coverage of the Hutto move.

George W. Bush ended his time at the G8 summit, the last that he will attend as U.S. presidency, with the following statement: "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter." According to the Telegraph reporting, "He then punched the air while grinning widely, as the rest of those present including Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy looked on in shock."..."One official who witnessed the extraordinary scene said afterwards: "Everyone was very surprised that he was making a joke about America's record on pollution."" --Huffington Post, 20 Aug '08