ExxonMobil [3] has confirmed that it has hired Philip A. Cooney [4], the former chief of staff at the White House Council on Environmental Quality [5] who resigned last week after it was revealed that his editing of government scientists reports downplayed the significance of climate change [6]. An Exxon Mobil spokesman declined to provide details of Cooney's new job, which he starts in autumn. Deputy spokeswoman for the White House, Dana Perino, told the New York Times [7] "Phil Cooney did a great job and we appreciate his public service and the work that he did, and we wish him well in the private sector."