Katherine Boyle, E&E Daily reporter
U.S. EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson and House Democrats clashed again yesterday over White House interference in agency decisions.
House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said Johnson is EPA administrator in name only. "My concern, Administrator Johnson, is you've become essentially a figurehead," Waxman told Johnson at a hearing yesterday. "At EPA when you try to follow the law and science, you are overridden."
EPA's controversial new ozone standards, rejection of California's
request to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles and failure to complete a Supreme-Court mandated review of carbon dioxide emissions all drew fire from lawmakers.
Agency documents and EPA officials' testimony reveal the White House pushed the agency to issue a less protective secondary ozone standard, deny California's petition and rework its endangerment finding and proposed regulations for CO2, congressional Democrats said.
"In each of these rulemakings, the pattern is the same," Waxman said."The president apparently insisted on his judgment and overrode the unanimous recommendations of EPA's scientific and legal experts."
The president does not have absolute power, and he is not above the law, Waxman warned.
Discussion centered around EPA's decision to rewrite its secondary ozone standard -- aimed at protecting wildlife, parks and farmland --after the White House intervened on the eve of the agency's court-ordered deadline.
Johnson and EPA career staff initially supported a secondary standard that limited long-term cumulative ozone exposure over a three-month growing season, according to a majority memo summarizing the committee's investigation. But EPA was told March 11 that President Bush had rejected its position and that of the agency's scientific advisory committee, the memo says (Greenwire (
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/2008/05/20/archive/2 ), May 20).
EPA then issued a standard measuring ozone exposure over an eight-hour period, which the agency set at the same level as the primary standard, 75 parts per billion.
The seasonal form of the secondary standard would be unlikely to provide protection beyond that already guaranteed by the tighter primary standard, Johnson said.
Debate grew heated when Johnson refused to directly answer Waxman's questions about his meetings with White House officials or turn over subpoenaed documents related to their communications. The administrator repeatedly told Waxman he had many routine meetings with the White House and refused to give further details, though he admitted the White House overruled EPA's ozone standards.
"It seems to me you're being awfully evasive," Waxman said. "I don't understand why you can't tell the committee whether you had conversations [with the White House] on these three issues."
A shouting match erupted between Waxman and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) when Issa told Waxman he had gone over his time limit during his questioning of Johnson.
"I will have you physically removed from this meeting if you don't
stop [talking] right now," Waxman told Issa.
Susan Dudley, administrator of the Office of Management and Budget's Information and Regulatory Affairs Office, also failed to bring subpoenaed documents to the hearing. OMB's general counsel suggested the committee determine if it still needs further information after the testimony from Dudley and Johnson.
Dudley defended President Bush's interference with EPA ozone
regulations, saying a 1993 executive order by former President Bill Clinton allows the president to settle any disputes between federal agencies and the Information and Regulatory Affairs Office.California waiver Lawmakers also questioned Johnson about his denial of California's waiver to regulate GHGs from motor vehicles, noting he initially supported fully or partially granting it.
A memo by the committee's majority staff says Johnson only reversed course after discussing the waiver with White House officials, citing testimony from a top EPA official (E&ENews PM (
http://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2008/05/19/archive/1 ), May 19).
But Republicans on the committee accused Democrats of conducting their investigation "through the prism of their assumptions" and defended the changes. "Balancing a variety of policy considerations is what policymakers in the executive branch do," a minority memo says. "This distinction is often lost on the majority."
Meanwhile, stakeholders in the waiver debate have vowed not to let the issue die.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) called the denial
disappointing but said it would not stop Californians from working to clean up their air. "We're going to be like a bunch of terminators," he said at a news conference in San Francisco yesterday. "We're going to march forward."
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will mark up a billfrom Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) today that would allow California and other states to regulate GHGs from motor vehicles, vacating EPA's December denial of the petition.
Boxer acknowledged that S. 2555 (
http://www.eenews.net/features/bills/110/Senate/190508182219.pdf ) has little chance of becoming law this year but said it would have a better chance after Bush leaves office.
"We know two things," she said. "The president of the United States will not grant this waiver. And the second thing, the three
presidential candidates all said they would. Draw your own
conclusions. We know we need a presidential signature."Markey subpoena
Meanwhile, the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming will vote tomorrow on whether to hold EPA in contempt.
The panel and EPA have engaged in a running battle over documents regarding EPA's failure to make an endangerment finding for carbon dioxide as mandated by the Supreme Court last year in Massachusetts v. EPA (E&ENews PM ( http://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2008/05/20/7/ ), May
20).
Darren Samuelsohn and Colin Sullivan contributed to this report.
