California petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency for waiver to regulate greenhouse gas emissions more forcefully than the federal government. EPA policy experts agreed that the state qualified for the waivers, but in the 11th hour, EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, one of the Bush administration’s more humiliating hacks, intervened and denied the California’s request.
Dems on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee have tried for months to learn about whether (and to what extent) the White House was involved with Johnson’s decision to ignore the advice of his staff. And for months, Johnson has stonewalled, delayed, and done everything possible to avoid cooperating with congressional oversight.
This morning, Rep. Henry Waxman was prepared to take things up a notch, and hold Johnson in contempt. He had to back off, however, because the White House used its two favorite words: executive privilege.
A House committee has backed off a threatened contempt of Congress vote against the head of the EPA after President Bush made a last-minute assertion of executive privilege to block the committee’s subpoenas of EPA.
Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman of California, who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, had scheduled a contempt vote for Friday morning against Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson and a White House budget official.
He contended the officials weren’t complying with subpoenas for documents to show whether the White House intervened with the EPA to produce more industry-friendly outcomes in setting a new smog rule and blocking California from regulating greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks.
As David Kurtz reminded us, “Keep in mind that the EPA and White House have been stonewalling Waxman for months, but have waited until now to formally invoke executive privilege.”
This really is ridiculous.
Waxman responded:
“I don’t think we’ve had a situation like this since Richard Nixon was president. When the President of the United States, may have been involved in acting contrary to law and the evidence that would determine that question for Congress, in exercising our oversight, is being blocked by an assertion of executive privilege. I would hope and expect this administration would not be making this assertion without a valid basis for it, but to date I have not seen a valid instance of their executive privilege.”
Keep in mind, before Johnson rejected California’s application, auto executives appealed directly to Dick Cheney, and Johnson delayed his decision until after the VP had talked to the execs: “On multiple occasions in October and November, Cheney and White House staff members met with industry executives, including the CEOs of Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler. At the meetings, the executives objected to California’s proposed fuel economy standards.”
Were Cheney’s meeting and the EPA’s decision related? Take a wild guess.
The US vice-president, Dick Cheney, was behind a controversial decision to block California’s attempt to impose tough emission limits on car manufacturers, according to insiders at the government Environmental Protection Agency.
Staff at the agency, which announced last week that California’s proposed limits were redundant, said the agency’s chief went against their expert advice after car executives met Cheney, and a Chrysler executive delivered a letter to the EPA saying why the state should not be allowed to regulate greenhouse gases.
This isn’t over.