Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson backed letting California set auto emissions rules stricter than federal standards before consulting with the White House, according to a congressional panel, Bloomberg reported Monday.
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, released a 20-page memorandum that said EPA staff unanimously supported the state’s petition and that Johnson also did, at least in part, before discussing it with White House officials, Bloomberg reported.
White House intervention in the decision would be a “serious breach” if Johnson was directed to ignore the guidelines of the Clean Air Act, which requires that California’s request be decided on specific statutory criteria, according to the memo, Bloomberg reported.
Democrats have alleged that Johnson relied more on politics than science to determine the administration’s environmental policies, a charge Johnson denies, Bloomberg said.
In December, EPA denied California's request to set emissions standards. (Click here for previous coverage.)
Johnson said at the time that energy bill signed into law by President Bush achieved greenhouse gas reductions through new fuel-efficiency standards, Bloomberg reported.
The memo released Monday, based on 27,000 pages of documents from the EPA and depositions or interviews of eight agency officials, concluded that more investigation was needed to determine the legality of the administration’s role in rejecting the request, Bloomberg said.
California, along with 17 other states, later sued the agency over the greenhouse gas rules.
(Click here for previous coverage.)
