Two senior White House officials published an open letter seeking to correct inaccurate stories in the press 'that the President's concern about climate change is new'. 'In fact', they reported, 'climate change has been a top priority since the President's first year in office'. To prove it, they had found 37 words he said about the subject in 2001; 46 words in 2002, and 32 words in January 2007. In January 2007, he had even managed to say 'climate change'. This demonstrated, the claimed, that he has shown 'continued leadership on the issue'.