“Subpoena These Guys”The day is drawing nigh when the limits of Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson’s chutzpah will be tested.
Late last year, Johnson, over the unanimous objection of his staff, arbitrarily denied California’s petition to limit greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks. He was even told that the EPA would lose the case if California sued — which they did, as expected, along with fifteen other states.
But even before that fore-ordained court fight takes place, Johnson will have to face Congress. First up is the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, of which Barbara Boxer’s (D-CA) the chair. A hearing is set for January 24th, when Johnson will get to explain his rationale in person. Here’s his two page denial letter as a preview — which Cali Attorney General Jerry Brown called “shocking in its incoherence and utter failure to provide legal justification for the administrator’s unprecedented action.”
In a committee hearing in California yesterday, Brown urged Boxer to not be subpoena-shy, since Johnson has still not provided the requisite supporting legal and technical documents for the decision (after reviewing California’s petition for more than two years, Johnson only issued that two page denial). From The Los Angeles Times:
“Subpoena these guys,” he urged Boxer. “Send the marshals out. Get them to tell us under oath. They are not going to get away with this. Sooner or later, we are going to uncover real corruption . . . that is dangerous to California and to the whole world.”
Brown said that the Bush administration may be able to delay court action a year, until the president’s term is over, but that Congress may be able to speed the process. “What you have is a bunch of scofflaws in the White House,” he said. “This fellow Johnson is becoming a stooge in a really pathetic drama that hopefully will not play out much longer.”
