Search Results
Search this site
Matching entries from TPMMuckraker
Senators Call for Resignation of EPA Administrator Johnson
Democratic Senators from the Environment and Public Works Committee called for the resignation of EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, in a press release published this afternoon. Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) was joined by committee members Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)...
EPA Prohibits Pollution Experts From Talking To IG Investigators
From the AP: The Environmental Protection Agency is telling its pollution enforcement officials not to talk with congressional investigators, reporters and even the agency's own inspector general, according to an internal e-mail provided to The Associated Press. The June 16...
Leahy Outlines What EPA Inspector General Should Investigate
As we mentioned yesterday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman called-off a hearing on the White House interference with EPA decision-making when EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson refused to testify. Today, Leahy released a letter he sent to William A. Roderick the Deputy...
"Stonewall" Johnson Refuses to Testify to Senate Committee
EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, who has notoriously avoided congressional testimony, declined to testify to the Senate Judiciary Committee next week. The hearing on the EPA's refusal to provide Congress with documents relating to the health risks of global warming was...
President Bush Asserts Exec. Privilege in Plame Leak Investigation
We've seen a lot of assertions of executive privilege in the last few months-- from Karl Rove to Stephen Johnson -- but now Attorney General Michael Mukasey has claimed executive privilege on behalf of President Bush. Mukasey's letter to House...
Bush Administration Formally Disavows EPA Staff Conclusion On Greenhouse Gases
The Bush Administration has rejected plans to regulate the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, despite an EPA staff report that backed the idea. The AP reports: The White House on Thursday rejected EPA's conclusion three weeks earlier that the...
Today's Must Read
The Bush Administration's newest tactic for policymaking is to ignore emails. The New York Times reports today that White House officials simply refused to open an email from the EPA last year because they knew it contained a policy recommendation...
EPA and OMB Give Oversight Committee Attitude
The Bush Administration has had since March 12 to respond to the subpoenas from the House oversight committee requesting documents pertaining to the EPA decisions on greenhouse gas and ozone regulations. Yet it waited until this morning -- the day...
Waxman: "I Don't Think We've Had a Situation Like This Since Richard Nixon"
The White House pulled out the old executive privilege trump card at the last minute today to avert a House government oversight committee vote to hold Administration officials in contempt of Congress. Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) has announced that...
Waxman Threatens Contempt of Congress In EPA Investigation
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) has had enough of the great stonewaller himself, EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson. In a letter today to Johnson, Waxman threatens to hold Johnson in contempt for failing to comply with congressional subpoenas requesting information on two...
Senate One Step Closer to Reversing EPA on California Waiver
From the AP: A Senate panel voted narrowly Wednesday to overturn EPA's decision blocking California and more than a dozen other states from limiting greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles. The bill by California Democrat Barbara Boxer passed the Environment and...
Boehner Demands Apology From Waxman for "Abusive Outburst"
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) has reacted angrily to Chairman Howard Waxman's gaveling down of Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) yesterday during a hearing with EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson. Here's the statement from Boehner: "Chairman Waxman's behavior in the Oversight...
Johnson's Stonewalling Drives Waxman to Gavel-Pounding Distraction
In a showdown between irresistible force and immovable object, the immovable object won. Under withering questioning this afternoon from exasperated House government oversight committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA), EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson held his ground, repeating the same non-responsive answers...
Today's Must Read
EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, perhaps the Administration's most accomplished stonewaller, goes before the House government oversight committee today to testify -- again -- about his refusal to grant a waiver for California to regulate vehicle greenhouse gas emissions despite unanimous...
Dem Senators Berate EPA Official
It's gotten to be pretty routine. An EPA official goes up to Capitol Hill and straight-facedly insists that the agency is all about transparency and science, and Democratic senators respond by calling it a lie. But this morning, it wasn't...
Whitehouse: EPA Regulator Firing Resembles U.S. Attorney Firings
It's not the first time that the politicization of the Environmental Protection Agency has forced comparisons to Alberto Gonzales' Justice Department, and it surely won't be the last. On the Senate floor this afternoon, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), who sits...
EPA Midwest Regulator Fired
From The Chicago Tribune: The Bush administration forced its top environmental regulator in the Midwest to quit Thursday after months of internal bickering about dioxin contamination downstream from Dow Chemical's world headquarters in Michigan. In an interview with the Tribune,...
Tricky, Tricky
You may remember that one of the ongoing battles between the EPA and Congress is over California's petition to institute tough limits on greenhouse gases from cars and trucks. EPA chief Stephen Johnson blocked the move, despite the unanimous recommendation...
Survey: Half of EPA Scientists Complain of Political Interference, Waxman to Investigate
From the AP: The Union of Concerned Scientists said that more than half of the nearly 1,600 EPA staff scientists who responded online to a detailed questionnaire reported they had experienced incidents of political interference in their work.... Nearly 400...
Again, EPA Asserts Executive Privilege against Embarrassment
EPA chief Stephen Johnson has deployed a variety of methods to thwart Congressional scrutiny. There's been old fashioned stonewalling. Testimonial gobbledygook. And of course fleeing the hemisphere. But there's another recurring method: refusing to turn over internal EPA documents because...
