EPA Staff Urged Administrator To Resign If He Denied California Emissions Waiver
EPA Staff Urged Administrator To Resign If He Denied California Emissions Waiver
In December, EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson denied California a waiver that would have allowed 16 states to implement landmark automobile greenhouse emissions reductions — against the advice of EPA staffers, who told Johnson that “California met every criteria” for the waiver request.
According to documents released by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) today, EPA staff members believed Johnson “might have to consider resigning” if he turned down the waiver. A staff memo prepared for the head of EPA’s Office of Transportation and Air Quality to present to Johnson urged:
The eyes of the world are on you. … You have to find a way to get this done. If you cannot, you will face a pretty big personal decision about whether you are able to stay in the job under those circumstances. This is a choice only you can make, but I ask you to think about the history and the future of the agency in making it. If you are asked to deny this waiver, I fear the credibility of the agency that we both love will be irreparably damaged.
In a press conference today, Boxer displayed a document from May 1, 2007, when Johnson was to meet with White House staff to discuss the waiver. Johnson carried papers “in his pocket” urging him to grant the waiver, but he buckled to the White House, Boxer remarked:
A funny thing happened on the way to the White House. … Mr. Johnson goes into the White House with a briefing that tells him to fight for the waiver. And then, the waiver’s not granted.
Staff even thought they made headway with Johnson. “I think Johnson now better appreciates that there are additional conditions in CA that make them vulnerable to climate change,” said a Climate Change division staff on October 31, 2007. Nevertheless, Johnson overrode their advice in the end.
Johnson’s injection of President Bush’s politics into science is notorious. Earlier this year, he censored documents with white duct tape on the EPA’s decision-making process on the California waiver. Asked whether global warming was “a major crisis” facing the world, Johnson replied, “I don’t know what you mean by major crisis.”
Ironically, Boxer said today that the documents revealed an EPA “in crisis.”
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“If you are asked to deny this waiver, I fear the credibility of the agency that we both love will be irreparably damaged.”
Mistake #1: Assuming Johnson loved anything other than swallowing BushitCo ejectum.
February 26th, 2008 at 1:27 pmHeckuva job, Johnnie.
February 26th, 2008 at 1:27 pmSomething familiar, something peculiar
Something for everyone: a comedy tonight
Something appealing, something appalling
Something for everyone: a comedy tonight
Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
February 26th, 2008 at 1:29 pmLooks like our friend Dick sat Johnson down and showed him some of the incriminating stuff that the Administration has data mined on him. “Now get in line Stephen and do our bidding. Nothing to see here, unless of course you don’t cooperate.”
February 26th, 2008 at 1:30 pmThe good people in this country are imprisoned by corporate whores, and Bush the corrupt warden leads the way with his fellow criminal cohorts, or the guards.
There’s no shortage of psychopathic, money-grubbing trash in America, unfortunately.
February 26th, 2008 at 1:39 pmA Bush appointee worried about credibility? Never.
February 26th, 2008 at 1:43 pmYou sign away that concern in the “loyalty agreements.”
Please REMEMBER, it’s not our politicians that will do the work. Greed is alive and well in America. It is “WE THE PEOPLE” that must stand together to MAKE SURE our desires are met; Not the politicians.
Be the change you want to see in America, and the World.
February 26th, 2008 at 1:45 pmThe Bushies also circumvented California’s medicinal marijuana law. What good is a referendum (in this case, a reefer-endum) if the feds can overturn it so easily?
http://newsprism.wordpress.com
February 26th, 2008 at 1:46 pmI watched Johnson ignore the truth in the congressional hearing on this.
No matter how they presented the case for emission controls in CA, he ignored the realities of the proposal & impact of doing nothing.
This is the only waiver never granted by the EPA, even though he himself admitted it met all established criteria.
This rings a familiar tone heard at the Justice dept, where staffers encouraged the ‘big guy’ to do the right thing.
Doing the right thing is a concept the Bush WH is unfamiliar with.
February 26th, 2008 at 1:50 pmA funny thing happened on the way to the White House. … Mr. Johnson goes into the White House with a briefing that tells him to fight for the waiver. And then, the waiver’s not granted.
If was esay. They simply showed him Dick Cheney’s empty man-sized safe and wa la, waiver not granted.
February 26th, 2008 at 1:50 pmSo do ya think he want to spend more time with the family, looking out over amber waves of grain? I think not!
February 26th, 2008 at 1:52 pmThe Bushies also circumvented California’s medicinal marijuana law. What good is a referendum (in this case, a reefer-endum) if the feds can overturn it so easily?
Comment by dictatortot
Oh, you leftys and your foolish dreams of democracy. Didn’t you learn in Nov. 2000 that your votes no longer count.
February 26th, 2008 at 1:53 pmI just cannot understand why one person, just one, could have an epiphany and simply stand up and say, “I can’t take it anymore!” And reveal just what Bush and Cheney and the other neocons have really been up to all along (besides what we already know). One person, to become human again. To realize that the constitution is not just a piece of paper. To wake up and understand the morality is much more than just blind faith in another man’s ideology. One person, under oath, to expose the mountain of lies and deceit once and for all. Isn’t there just one?
As for our Democratic presidential hopefuls don’t count on too much “change.” Just follow their money trail and find out who their pimps are. This country is in trouble.
February 26th, 2008 at 1:53 pm“To destroy this invisible government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day.
The deliberate betrayal of its trust by the Republican party, the fatal incapacity of the Democratic party to deal with the new issues of the new time, have compelled the people to forge a new instrument of government through which to give effect to their will in laws and institutions.”
That was from the Progressive Party platform of 1912.
February 26th, 2008 at 1:54 pmToo bad they gave up on the party back then, because “The Song Remains the Same”.
Wayne, do you suppose it’s too late to resurrect this, one hundred years later?
February 26th, 2008 at 2:00 pmNader sure as hell isn’t the answer, except to the question, who got McCain elected in 08?
If you are asked to deny this waiver, I fear the credibility of the agency that we both love will be irreparably damaged.
And that is exactly what has happened.
Oh well, President Obama will turn it all around.
February 26th, 2008 at 2:02 pm“President Obama”. Isn’t it nice to have something to look forward to for a change?
February 26th, 2008 at 2:02 pmIronically, Boxer said today that the documents revealed an EPA “in crisis.â€
The EPA must be a little late in joining the ‘in crisis’ party that the United States has been involved in since the day junior was installed.
Memo to Nancy:
Shit or get off the pot sweetheart.
February 26th, 2008 at 2:03 pmNancy Pelosi is useless.
February 26th, 2008 at 2:05 pmI just cannot understand why one person, just one, could have an epiphany and simply stand up and say, “I can’t take it anymore!†And reveal just what Bush and Cheney and the other neocons have really been up to all along (besides what we already know).
I suspect it is because these people know that, if they stood up and told the world what the Bush Cabal has been doing, they would have to go into the Witness Protection Program if they had any chance to stay alive.
February 26th, 2008 at 2:05 pmOur Civil professionals aren’t going to know what to do with themselves once the blight of Republican corruption is removed from their Agencies. I hope enough of them remain from “before the darkness” to help get back on track, and doing the work all Americans need them to do.
February 26th, 2008 at 2:12 pmI think that before we can talk about climate change in this country… we’re going to need a regime change….
February 26th, 2008 at 2:12 pmWayne, do you suppose it’s too late to resurrect this, one hundred years later?
Nader sure as hell isn’t the answer, except to the question, who got McCain elected in 08?
Comment by RUCerious — February 26, 2008 @ 2:00 pm
Too late for 2008, but is it is started early 2009, and if the Democrats still act like they have in the 110th Congress, we may have a chance to try to replace some ineffective Congressional idiots in 2010 and maybe run a presidential candidate for 2012.
But we will need some good people with name recognition to put themselves behind such a movement, if there are any that haven’t been bought out yet.
February 26th, 2008 at 2:13 pmOh well, President Obama will turn it all around.
Comment by bilbobaggins — February 26, 2008 @ 2:02 pm
He is getting my vote, so we shall see.
Dodd came out today endorsing Obama. I got the email from Dodd this morning ( I was one of his campaign donors ).
February 26th, 2008 at 2:17 pmIf Obama chooses John Edwards as his veep then he has my vote.
February 26th, 2008 at 2:19 pmMemo to Nancy:
Shit or get off the pot sweetheart.
Comment by Keith H. — February 26, 2008 @ 2:03 pm
You have to get one of her Corporate donors to tell her that for it to be effective.
February 26th, 2008 at 2:22 pmWhat a disgrace!
February 26th, 2008 at 2:40 pmThis isn’t directly related to the EPA issue, but is simply one more horrible example of what this administration has done and continues to try to do to our nation’s heritage. And Pelosi took impeachment “off the table?” The House needs new, more progressive and more courageous leadership, that’s for sure!
Bush Administration Strips Protections from America’s Largest Forest
Pristine Areas Targeted for Logging
Juneau, AK (January 25, 2008) — Today, the Bush administration took its third swipe in recent weeks at opening protected areas in America’s national forests to logging before it leaves office. A Bush plan announced today puts a “for sale†sign on trees in vast swaths of the nation’s largest national forest – the Tongass rainforest in Alaska.
This move by Bush officials to reverse roadless area protections joins two others made recently in the national forests located in Idaho and Colorado.
“The few remaining roadless areas of our national forests are some of the only safe harbors for America’s wildlife. As global warming threatens to change dramatically the landscape we must have the foresight to preserve these last remaining pristine forests for future generations,†said Mary Beth Beetham at Defenders of Wildlife. “It’s folly for the Bush administration, in its last few months, to work to destroy these areas.â€
The Bush administration’s just-released management plan for the Tongass National Forest in Alaska puts millions of pristine acres in this ancient rainforest on the auction block to the timber industry, yet will raise no revenue for the U.S. government, as the U.S. taxpayers themselves will have to pay to build the roads the timber companies need to access the forest. The Tongass is the largest national forest in the country.
http://www.nrdc.org/media/2008/080125a.asp
February 26th, 2008 at 2:44 pmSomebody, somewhere, please exhibit some integrity.
I was once given a similar option (do what we say, or resign).
Money has never been my life’s focus, rather, quality of life as I see fit.
So I told them to go to hell, and my life’s been so much better than if I had “towed the line”.
Far too many put money ahead of the morals.
February 26th, 2008 at 2:48 pmMemo to Nancy:
Shit or get off the pot sweetheart.
Comment by Keith H. — February 26, 2008 @ 2:03 pm
Have to add:
Remember when Cindy Sheehan and Think Pink, tried to deliver an Impeachment petition to Nancy, when she refused to see them, they delivered to Conyers, then Sheehan was arrested.
Pelosi doesn’t give a damn what the people have to say
February 26th, 2008 at 2:59 pmAn impeachment petition with over a million signatures didn’t matter to Pelosi, probably because it didn’t come with a campaign donation…..
February 26th, 2008 at 3:00 pm“If you are asked to deny this waiver, I fear the credibility of the agency that we both love will be irreparably damaged.”
Well, damaging the credibility of EVERY federal agency is the explicit goal of the Bush administration. They are determined to prove that government can’t work, by undercutting it in every possible way at every possible opportunity.
Why isn’t this treason?
February 26th, 2008 at 4:40 pmOver 400 World Wide Prominent Scientists Disputed Man-Made Global Warming Claims in 2007. See http://tinyurl.com/2dv6nz
February 26th, 2008 at 5:58 pmOver 400 World Wide Prominent Scientists Disputed Man-Made Global Warming Claims in 2007. See http://tinyurl.com/2dv6nz
Comment by DrColes — February 26, 2008 @ 5:58 pm
What, this crap again. A small group of oil-funded morons, again?
February 26th, 2008 at 6:29 pmCheck this link from Techfun - to “dispute” the “disputed”!
February 27th, 2008 at 5:38 am
Oops
http://blog.techfun.org/400-skeptical-scientists
February 27th, 2008 at 5:38 am