Democrats White House again cozy with Big Oil

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats said on 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."

Semper Fi