Bush's Shade of Green

The Nation 20may02

In Fact. . .

Chris Floyd writes: It's no mystery why the Bush Administration engineered the ouster of Robert Watson as chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in April. The White House had received an unsigned "recommendation" from ExxonMobil that Watson, who has been outspoken in the fight against global warming, had to go. But many were puzzled by the White House arm-twisting on behalf of Watson's replacement: Indian environmentalist R.K. Pachauri, who is a strong backer of the Kyoto treaty and even voiced approval of a campaign to boycott ExxonMobil. Why embrace such a candidate? Perhaps because Pachauri is something of an oilman himself. In January 1999 he was appointed to a three-year term on the board of Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. Pachauri's Tata Energy Research Institute has also formed a partnership with Monsanto to develop genetically modified mustard oil and collaborated with the Global Technology Strategy Project, an "environmental" group sponsored by BP Amoco, Toyota--and Mobil. Finally, as a member of a panel investigating India's Dabhol Power Plant, he voted against setting up a judicial inquiry into alleged illegalities involving government officials and the developer-a little of Texas company called Enron.