Environmental Law

Wall Street Journal: Johnson A Target For Rejecting CA Greenhouse Plan

By Dennis Pfaff and Kevin Livingston, Editors

The Wall Street Journal (Feb. 19) recounts the saga of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson (pictured at left), whom it calls a "a rare breed of Washington career" bureaucrat who survived multiple administrations but who now finds himself a target of the Democrats. A key issue: Johnson's decision last December to reject California's attempt to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles.

Johnson, whom the newspaper noted is the "first career EPA employee in the agency's nearly 38- year history to be chosen as its administrator," is also facing another decision, to determine whether greenhouse pollution endangers public health or welfare. If the answer is yes, the Journal reported, the agency would be required by law to regulate "a vast part of U.S. industry." Johnson has not said when he will make that decision.

In order to implement its landmark 2002 law limiting automobile climate-changing emissions, California sought a needed a waiver from the EPA. Johnson said. no. The paper summed up the controversy over the California standards this way:

In December, Mr. Johnson angered a swath of environmental interest groups and governors in more than a dozen states, including California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, by blocking California's efforts to curb greenhouse-gas emissions from automobiles.

In so doing, Mr. Johnson went against the advice of many of his EPA colleagues and delivered a huge victory for auto makers, which feared an onslaught of costly new state regulations. That decision has triggered a lawsuit by California and more than a dozen other states, as well as multiple congressional investigations seeking to determine how Mr. Johnson reached his conclusion.

The agency's lawyers told Mr. Johnson last year that California had a compelling need for the waiver, and that the EPA was likely to lose in court if sued over denying it, according to congressional aides who were allowed to see an internal EPA presentation turned over to a House committee under subpoena. The EPA asked the panel not to copy or disseminate the documents, saying they could be cited in litigation and "potentially impede the government's ability to defend its actions."

Despite the fact that some Republicans, including Schwarzenegger, disagreed with the determination, the paper reported that Johnson's sharpest critics have been Democrats.

The paper also reprised a controversy that erupted after Johnson spoke at a Republican fund-raising event "attended by representatives of various companies with business before the EPA. The event occurred at the offices of the former law firm of the disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, whose crimes were a major campaign issue in 2006." Despite criticism by Democrats, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel recently concluded Johnson had not broken any federal law, the Journal reported.

Full post as published by Climate Law Update on February 20, 2008 (boomark / email).