UPDATE: Johnson Stonewalls House Committee Investigating White House Meddling with EPA Decisions
WASHINGTON -- The top U.S. environmental regulator had planned to allow California rules regulating greenhouse-gas emissions from motor vehicles to go forward in some form but reversed course after meeting with the White House, according to a document released on Monday by a congressional committee
WSJ
This is flat out scandal.
Here is how the Guardian in the UK sees this...
A top official at the US Environmental Protection Agency confirmed that the agency denied strong carbon emissions limits proposed by California after the White House intervened, it emerged today.
But the official, who resigned from the agency earlier this month, told congressional investigators that he was instructed not to reveal whether George Bush or other White House officials played a personal role in the controversial blockage of California's pollution rules.
Why is this a big deal? Because the White House appears to have forced Johnson to override the concensus of both the scientific and legal staffs at the EPA.
Johnson is royally fucked. His oath of fealty to the Bush Administration directly conflicts with his duties as Administrator of the EPA. A situation Christine Todd Whitman knew well and eventually left the agency over. But Johnson is much more of a Bush toady than Whitman ever was, and he plans to go to bat for the White House to keep this info out of congressional hands.
The Guradian continues...
The EPA associate deputy administrator, 31-year-old Jason Burnett, told the oversight committee of the House of Representatives that agency chief Stephen Johnson was prepared to approve a waiver allowing California to set strong limits on greenhouse gas emissions.
Trained staff members at the EPA had unanimously advised Johnson that US clean air laws supported California's plan and that the Bush administration should support it.
Burnett agreed, according to an interview summary the oversight panel released today. He told Congress that "all EPA recommendations that I am aware of ... were either supporting granting the full waiver or granting partial waiver".
However, Johnson shifted from support for at least a partial waiver in the autumn of last year to a denial of California's request in December. The state would have required a 30% reduction in tailpipe emissions from cars by 2016, dealing a blow to auto industry profits.
When asked whether Johnson spoke with the White House before his position changed, Burnett said: "I believe the answer is yes." Bush aides also had "input into the rationale" for the December denial, according to Burnett.
Full story here
California sought to regulate vehicle carbon emissions more strictly than the federal government and other states had agreed in advance to adopt those guidelines, as long as it received EPA approval. The waiver should have been granted without question because California has always been on the cutting edge of air pollution regulations. It has always received waivers because California was regulating air pollution before the EPA was established. It enjoys permanent grandfather clause status if you will.
Who put the screws into Stephen Johnson and delayed state efforts to combat global warming despite Bush Administration foot dragging?
We may find out soon.
Johnson is headed into a U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing today, a hearing in which he has refused to hand over the smoking gun documents.
He will officially be in contempt of Congress at the hearing.
This will get ugly.
My guess is that the screw turner is Cheney.