More on Stephen Johnson (w/update)

Back in January I wrote a post about how EPA administrator Stephen Johnson had denied California’s request for a federal law waiver so the state could implement its own landmark regulations to slash greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles.

Appearing before the U.S. Senate's environment committee, Johnson deflected oft-repeated questions from Sens. Barbara Boxer, (D-CA) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) about any White House role in the decision.

Since he denied the waiver request, groups have been pressuring him to release his official statement on why he denied their request as more than a few prominent scientists, including some who actually work at the EPA, questioned his decision. Well, he finally released his official statement today, and it’s covered in White House fingerprints with a nice dollop of Bush-logic thrown-in for good measure. (in other words; it’s bullshit. Pure, unadulterated bullshit…)

Johnson wrote; “While I find that the conditions related to global climate change in California are substantial, they are not sufficiently different from conditions in the nation as a whole to justify separate state standards.”

So let me see if I have this straight… because we face global warming everywhere, he’s not going to allow it to be addressed anywhere, thus ignoring an INTERNAL EPA study that showed California suffers disproportionately from the effects of global warming than other states…

Reading that, and then realizing how utterly ridiculous it sounds, one has to instantly wonder how much input the White House gave Johnson… and how strongly did that input weigh on his decision.

Naturally, as all good BushCronies do; he ain't talkin'…

Though I don’t think we really need anyone to tell us how much input the White House had, do we?

3/7 UPDATE: Following Johnson’s actions of overruling his agency’s staff, House Democrats are seeking to overturn Johnson's ruling, with Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) saying yesterday that the EPA has “said no to the states. They’ve said no to their own scientists. They’ve said no to common sense. […] It’s time for EPA to lead, follow, or get out of the way.” (Nicely done, it seems the Democrats are finally starting to show some balls with an administration that has a low-approval rated, lame-duck president… stay tuned)