White House Influenced EPA's Calif. GHG Decision Says Congressional Committee, Deeper Probe Urged

White House Influenced EPA's Calif. GHG Decision Says Congressional Committee, Deeper Probe Urged

The Bush administration actively pushed the Environmental Protection Agency to refuse California the go-ahead last year to implement a set of greenhouse gas regulations that are tougher than federal standards, a Congressional committee said Monday.

The majority report by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform doesn't allege any actionable wrong-doing.

But it says that the level of White House interference discovered in a five-month investigation of the controversial ruling seems "inconsistent with the president's constitutional obligation to faithfully execute the laws of the United States if the president or his advisors pressured" EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson in his decision "for political or other inappropriate reasons." In 27,000 pages of documents and testimony from eight key EPA and administration staffers, the committee found evidence that Johnson initially supported California's request for a waiver that would permit it to set its own greenhouse gas standards for autos and trucks rather than wait for federal rules that were then, and still are, in development.

But the administrator changed his position after communicating his initial thoughts to the White house, the committee report said.

"Additional investigation by the Committee will be required to assess the basis for the White House intervention in the decision," the report concluded.

Because of its poor air quality, California is permitted by federal law to establish air pollution control regulations that exceed federal levels. No other state can set its own standards, but all are permitted to adopt California's rules to replace federal EPA regulations if they choose to do so.

To date, 13 states have opted to follow California rules and several others – including neighboring Arizona -- are actively considering adopting such rules.

But before enforcing its own rules California must obtain a waiver from the EPA, acknowledging that special circumstances exist that make it necessary for the state to go its own way.

In the case of California's greenhouse gas rules, established to implement a 2002 state law, the state's overall poor air quality, its heavy concentration of cars and trucks and the potential harm to the public from greenhouse-gas induced climate warming all were cited.

In its final majority report, the oversight committee said that EPA staff members who were interviewed "were unable to identify any agency documents that argued in favor of denial [of the waiver request] prior to December 19, 2007, the day California's petition was denied.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat who heads the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and has been a vocal critic of the EPA's decision to deny the state's request for a waiver, said Monday that the House committee's report shows that "clearly, the Bush administration at the highest levels killed the California waiver."

She renewed her call for "immediate" access to White House and EPA documents pertaining to the decision-making process and to records of any correspondence and conversations between EPA's Johnson and the White House about the California waiver.

John O'Dell, Senior Editor

John O'Dell:  is an AutoObserver Senior Editor. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.