A recent congressional investigation has come up with new details regarding the fact that senior Bush administration officials favored using the Clean Air Act to limit greenhouse gas emissions but they were countered by Vice President Dick Cheney's office, ExxonMobil and other big players in the oil industry.

The above mentioned report was issued by the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming and backs the confession by a former Environmental Protection Agency official last week that someone in Cheney's office interfered to shift the policy.

Among others, the congressional investigation found out that there was in fact a wide support from seniors from the Bush administration at the EPA in order to conclude that greenhouse gases are a danger to the public and the emissions of cars, power plants and refineries should be regulated. If that move would have been made, the EPA would have been given a powerful hand to limit emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases, a move which would have considerably changed the federal policy.

The investigation mentioned those supporting this strategy: Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman and three senior White House officials: Deputy Chief of Staff Joel D. Kaplan; Susan E. Dudley, regulatory chief at the Office of Management and Budget; and James L. Connaughton, chief of the Council on Environmental Quality.

On the other side there were the representatives of ExxonMobil, the American Petroleum Institute and the National Petrochemicals and Refiners Assn. who said that such a move would damage President Bush’s image as an opponent of government regulation. F. Chase Hutto III, Cheney's energy advisor, was on their side, the report said.