WASHINGTON.A report released yesterday by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has large omissions and major oversights, but not because scientists or researchers failed to identify them. White House political operatives removed substantial parts of the report, especially those that address global warming, leaving the scientific community, environmentalists and Members of Congress fuming mad.

U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) is leading the charge in Congress urging the President and EPA to tell the American public the truth about global warming. "We have the facts, the research is in and yet the White House deliberately deleted it from a significant national report on the environment," Baldwin said. "I am outraged."

In her letter to Bush, the Wisconsin lawmaker asked what specific sections of the environmental report were removed and why. She also requests a public comment period on the report in the next 120 days and the issuance of a final one by January 1, 2004. EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman recently announced her resignation. Her replacement has not yet been named.

The report originally planned as a review of environmental challenges deleted language from the National Research Council that found recent climate warming was not usual and likely tied to human activities. It also deleted reference to the fact that global temperatures have risen sharply in the past decade compared to the previous 1,000 years.

An internal memo from EPA staff expressed concern that the final report."no longer accurately represents scientific consensus on climate change."

"I could not sit back and see the hard work of scientists and EPA staff end up on the cutting room floor," Baldwin said, "especially since their work has such far reaching implications for our nation and our planet. This action is just another in a series of direct, frontal assaults on the environment."

A text of Baldwin's letter to the President is now circulating in Congress. In it, she pleads with Bush not to politicize scientific research that could affect our environment. She and her co-signers write:

We realize global climate change is a complex issue, but we feel scientific data should not be suppressed, disregarded, or distorted for political purposes. American citizens are counting on the EPA and White House to make the air they breathe, water they drink, and environment they enjoy safe. Communities should feel confident in the science the EPA uses to make decisions that affect their health and safety

"I hope some of my Republican colleagues sign on," Baldwin said. "After all, protecting the environment is not a partisan issue. Teddy Roosevelt was the great conservationist. Even Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford had good environmental records. Now this administration has the gall to slice and dice from a scientific report they don't agree with. What's next? Will the White House tell us nuclear waste is good for us?"