AMY GOODMAN: And yesterday was Earth Day. To mark the occasion, former oil executive President Bush spent the day in the acid rain-plagued Adirondack Mountains to sell his Clear Skies Initiative. The plan’s market-based approach to reducing pollutants, environmental groups warn the plan would be a step backward from goals set by the Clean Air Act regulations already on the books.

But just days before the photo op, the Bush administration succeeded in ousting the head of the U.N.-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Robert Watson. Watson is an outspoken critic of Bush’s energy policy. Controversy has mired the meeting since it was revealed the U.S. State Department was supporting Watson’s ouster. That controversy turned to outrage when the Natural Resources Defense Council uncovered a memo from the U.S. oil corporation ExxonMobil asking the White House to unseat Watson. ExxonMobil was a major contributor to Bush’s election campaign.

We’re joined on the phone by David Doniger. He’s policy director at the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Climate Center.

Welcome to Democracy Now!

DAVD DONIGER: Well, thank you.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you tell us about the memo that you uncovered?

DAVD DONIGER: The memo was sent in February of last year, right after the new administration came in. And it asked for the dismissal of Bob Watson, who’s a well-recognized expert, who runs with great skill this international science panel. They asked for his dismissal because they didn’t like the results that the panel was coming up with, namely that climate change is really going on, and global warming is caused by manmade emissions, fossil fuel emissions. Just over a year later, after more lobbying from fossil fuel interests, the administration decided to back the alternative candidate, in an anybody-but-Watson approach, and they were successful last Friday in getting other countries to replace Watson.

AMY GOODMAN: Again, the memo from ExxonMobil?

DAVD DONIGER: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: And how did you get a hold of it?

DAVD DONIGER: Well, under the Freedom of Information Act, we asked last year for documents that would explain who the Bush administration met with before changing its position on the global warming treaty. And this is one of the things we got back. It’s very similar to the influence peddling that’s demonstrated regarding the energy task force, where we got 11,000 pages of documents from the Energy Department that demonstrate that they met almost entirely with only one side, the energy industry, in deciding what the energy policies should be for the United States.

AMY GOODMAN: David Doniger, thanks for joining us, policy director of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Climate Center. You’re listening to Democracy Now!

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AMY GOODMAN: Singer, civil rights activist and composer Matt Jones, a member of The Freedom Singers.