Johnson may be a fine choice, but it won’t matter

In a bizarre twist, the Bush White House released good news on a Friday afternoon, announcing that Stephen L. Johnson will be the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency. In an even more bizarre twist, environmental advocates are actually pleased with the choice.

In fact, Johnson, poised to become the first professional scientist to head the EPA, won generally warm praise from groups that usually reject all of Bush’s environmental policies. So, are we seeing the Bush gang turn a new leaf when it comes to protecting our natural resources? Of course not.

Perhaps more so than any presidency in history, Bush’s cabinet secretaries are almost irrelevant. This president has consolidated power to the West Wing … and left his cabinet secretaries with little in the way of influence or significance.

Indeed, that’s exactly why even those who respect Johnson know that Friday’s announcement is hardly encouraging for the future.

“I can’t say enough positive about him from the standpoint of his fairness and rigor and openness,” said Kenneth Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, an advocacy organization that has often clashed with the EPA — and with Johnson. “The big question will be whether he will have the freedom to call ’em like he sees ’em, or whether there will be the kind of interference that Governor Whitman has written about.”

Exactly. Bush tapped Christie Todd Whitman, who has always been center-left on the environment, and proceeded to ignore everything she ever wanted and/or said. Let’s not forget, during the 2000 campaign, Bush promised to curb carbon dioxide emissions as part of a “four pollutant” environmental strategy. Just two months into Bush’s term, Whitman insisted that the president would stick to his campaign promise. Shortly thereafter, the White House announced Whitman was wrong and that the campaign promise had been made “in error.” In March 2001, Bush made it official by telling GOP lawmakers in Congress that his administration opposes mandatory limits on carbon dioxide, after having argued the opposite six months prior.

What did having a reasonable EPA secretary get us? A bad policy and an embarrassed policy maker.

So, is Johnson a good choice? Sure. Will he be confirmed by the Senate? I doubt there will be a vote against him. But keep in mind what Bradley Campbell, the commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and Johnson’s former colleague at the environmental agency during the Clinton administration said over the weekend: “I expect that [Johnson will] be on a very short leash, with the real decisions being made at the Office of Management and Budget and the White House.”