Senate panel slams EPA chief on Calif. auto emission denial

Senate panel slams EPA chief on Calif. auto emission denial Members of a Senate environmental committee blasted the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last Thursday for his decision last month to block California from implementing tough greenhouse gas emission standards for automobiles.
   Later the same day, 16 senators announced were introducing federal legislation to reverse the EPA decision, which has also blocked moves by 19 other states from implementing standards similar to those sought by California.
   EPA administrator Stephen Johnson, testifying before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, defended his Dec. 19 decision to deny a two-year-old waiver request from California, saying it was the 'right decision, not the easy decision.'
   Johnson, repeating his earlier justifications, said California's request did not meet the criteria for an EPA approval based on “the law, the facts, and the information provided to me.'
   While Johnson said that a formal denial of California's waiver, expected to be published in the Federal Register by the end of February, would include the scientific, technical and legal justification for his decision, he did not provide details despite pointed questions from committee members.
   Under the federal Clean Air Act and subsequent court decisions, California is permitted to enact stricter-than-federal emission standards regarding greenhouse gases as long as the state obtains a federal waiver from the EPA. Johnson's denial was the first after more than 50 EPA-approved California waivers regarding emission standards over the past 40 years. A 2002 California law sought to set stringent limits for automobile greenhouse gas emissions, but was delayed by court action until 2005. The state made the waiver request to the EPA shortly after a court decided in California's favor regarding the law.
   A federal energy bill, passed by Congress earlier this year and enacted by the White House just hours before Johnson announced his denial of California's request, seeks to cut greenhouse gas emissions by raising national fuel economy standards.
   Johnson repeated to the committee his initial defense of the denial, arguing the new energy bill pre-empts the California law by setting tougher national standards than sought in the state law. The EPA head also argued that because greenhouse gas emissions “harm the environment in California and elsewhere regardless of where the emissions occur,” California does not face an “exclusive or unique” challenge requiring special emission regulations.
   Committee chair Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., in her opening remarks, expressed her outrage over Johnson's decision and his response to the committee's investigation into it.
   'In my many years in the House and in the Senate,' Boxer told Johnson, 'I have never seen such disregard and disrespect by an agency head for Congress and the committee responsible for (its) oversight.'
   Boxer pointed out that during his sworn confirmation hearing testimony in 2004, Johnson told Congress that his guiding principle as EPA administrator would be “to ensure that the agency’s decisions are based on the best available scientific information and to pursue as open and transparent a decision making process as possible.”
   After presenting documents forwarded to the committee by the EPA that had virtually all content other than page titles redacted with white tape, Boxer asked Johnson, 'Is this your notion of an 'open and transparent decision making process?' '
   Johnson responded that the contents of the documents were protected by the agency’s attorney-client privilege and that the original redaction of the documents was to protect the EPA position in litigation over the decision. He pointed out to Boxer that though he could have used the attorney-client privilege to prevent the committee from seeing the documents in their unedited form, 'I decided to waive my privilege and allow you and your staff to see the documents.'
   'Your counsel and our counsel have discussed this,' countered Boxer. 'You can not assert privilege vis-'-vis the Congress.' Boxer, after revealing that EPA staff had told Johnson in the documents that California did meet the criteria for the waiver, blasted Johnson for disregarding their advice and setting up the EPA for a lawsuit from California and the other states.
   'When you look at what was underneath the taped-over documents, you find that your staff was very clear — you are walking the American taxpayers into a lawsuit that you are going to lose.
   Johnson's lone defender on the committee, Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla, the minority chair of the committee, defended the EPA denial saying that California legislators are trying to create legislation through the EPA that the state could not get passed federally.
   A long-time skeptic of global warming, Inhofe said 'I think it is certainly relevant that California cannot show harm from global warming over the last two decades because temperatures there have been declining, not increasing.'
   Connecticut Independent Sen. Joseph Lieberman told Johnson, 'The fed government is not doing nearly enough to reduce America’s greenhouse gas emissions, and if the administration will not work for responsible action in this regard, then I believe that it should at the very least stay out of road that many state governments are taking for real forward looking action.'
   Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J. praised the 19 states that are attempting to adopt the proposed California standards and called Johnson's denial a 'step backwards' for the entire nation.
   'It is bad enough when the federal government fails to lead,' Lautenberg told Johnson, 'but even worse when the federal government gets in the way of states that are trying to act in the interest of the public and in the absence of leadership from the EPA.'
   Following the hearing, Boxer and 15 other senators introduced legislation that attempts to override Johnson's denial and grant California's request for a waiver. The bill was co-sponsored by 13 Democrats, including California Sen. Diane Feinstein, and presidential hopefuls New York Sen. Hillary Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.
   In announcing the legislation to 'take the decision out of the hands of the EPA,' Feinstein said, 'It’s become clear that Administrator Johnson’s denial of California’s waiver was based on politics, not science. Even the EPA’s own experts have said that there was a compelling need for action.'
   A letter issued late Thursday by the head of the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a coalition of four labor unions representing EPA scientists, engineers and other technical specialists, slammed Johnson's testimony.
   'By his performance today, Stephen Johnson forfeited whatever shred of credibility he once enjoyed,' PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch said. ' Keith Higginbotham