The Wall Street Journal-20080124-Politics - Economics- Documents Show EPA Discord
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Politics & Economics: Documents Show EPA Discord
Environmental Protection Agency staff warned the agency's chief last year that the state of California has a strong legal case for regulating vehicle emissions, according to documents reviewed and described by Senate staff.
Senate Democrats are expected to use the finding to confront the Bush administration at a hearing today that will focus on the administration's decision last month to deny California permission to regulate automobile carbon-dioxide emissions.
The evidence of conflict between the agency's staff and EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson will intensify a debate over the administrator's decision late last year to block the state from going forward with the nation's first vehicle carbon-dioxide-emissions rules. The issue is of critical importance to the auto industry, which doesn't want to face what is sees as a patchwork of carbon-dioxide restrictions. The industry has argued that climate change is a problem that should be handled at the federal level.
Mr. Johnson is scheduled to testify today before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, led by California Democrat Barbara Boxer, who suggested yesterday that Mr. Johnson should be dismissed.
"He needs to be held accountable," Sen. Boxer said. She said she is seeking to reverse Mr. Johnson's decision, and that "the president could fire him, if he felt as I do."
California may make its own auto-emissions rules as long as it receives a waiver from the EPA. Other states may adopt California's standards or choose the federal standards. So far, more than a dozen other states have passed laws to adopt the California standard, which aims to reduce vehicle emissions, beginning with 2009 model-year cars. The states can't implement the policies unless California is granted the EPA waiver.
Mr. Johnson denied California's request for a waiver in December, saying the state doesn't have "compelling and extraordinary conditions" to justify allowing it to set its own rules. The challenge posed by greenhouse-gas emissions "is not exclusive or unique to California," he said.
But EPA staff in late October assembled materials saying that "California continues to have compelling and extraordinary conditions," according to notes taken by the Senate staff. The EPA staff noted that the effects of greenhouse-gas emissions can vary by region. The EPA staff said California "exhibits a greater number of key impact concerns than other regions," citing its coastal communities and an increasing number of wildfires.
The Senate committee yesterday released excerpts from slides that were part of a PowerPoint presentation assembled for Mr. Johnson last year. The EPA allowed Senate staffers to view the materials under pressure from Sen. Boxer.
EPA spokesman Jonathan Shradar characterized the PowerPoint presentation as "one document over a two-year process" and said the administrator was given "a range of options" by his staff. "This issue is a global issue and a national issue, and we believe a national response is appropriate," Mr. Shradar said.
Earlier this year, California and 15 states sued the EPA for blocking the state rules.
