EPA chief sits and takes his punishment Boxer lambastes Johnson over refusing waiver

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., holds tape which covered correspondence the committee received from the EPA during a hearing of the committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2008, to discuss California's request for a greenhouse gas waiver. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook) less Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., holds tape which covered correspondence the committee received from the EPA during a hearing of the committee on Capitol Hill ... more Photo: Dennis Cook Photo: Dennis Cook Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close EPA chief sits and takes his punishment 1 / 4 Back to Gallery

Environmental Protection Agency chief Stephen Johnson faced a blistering critique from lawmakers and governors Thursday for rejecting California's attempt to set the nation's most stringent greenhouse gas regulations for cars and trucks.

At his first appearance before Congress since denying California's request for a waiver to enforce its new rules, Johnson was hit from all sides. Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, a Democrat, called the EPA chief's decision "shameful, outrageous and irresponsible." Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas, a Republican, said the ruling infringes on states' rights and undercuts state efforts to fight climate change.

California Sen. Barbara Boxer, who chaired the hearing, accused Johnson of trying to hide documents from Congress showing that he had overruled his staff in denying the waiver last month. EPA first refused to release the documents, then turned over papers that were mostly whited out. Finally he allowed Boxer's staff this week to hand copy them under the eye of EPA lawyers.

"I have never seen such disregard and disrespect by an agency head for Congress and for the committees with the responsibility for oversight of his agency," Boxer said.

Johnson, an EPA career veteran, attempted a rope-a-dope strategy: He sat placidly while taking the pounding from lawmakers, then insisted again and again that he'd made the right call.

"While many urged me to approve or deny the California waiver request, I am bound by the criteria in the Clean Air Act, not people's opinions," he said. "My job is to make the right decision, not the easy decision."

The hearing highlighted the high stakes in the clash between California and the Bush administration over the proposed rules. Fourteen other states have now adopted California's standards and four more plan to adopt them - meaning more than half the nation's population has embraced the state's tougher regulations for vehicles.

In his testimony, Johnson tried to explain the rationale for his decision: He said the state did not show the compelling and extraordinary conditions required under the Clean Air Act to grant a waiver because global warming is an international problem and requires global, not a regional, solutions.

"Unlike pollutants covered by other waivers, greenhouse gas emissions harm the environment in California and elsewhere, regardless of where the emissions occur," he said. "Therefore, this challenge is not exclusive or unique to California."

But lawmakers were skeptical of his explanation. Many said the administration was simply seeking to block the states from taking more aggressive action to combat climate change.

"Your agency's decision to deny California a waiver just defies logic to me," said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. "And it's clearly a decision, I believe, that's based on politics and not on fact."

Democrats on the committee also seized on documents showing that EPA's lawyers told Johnson that California could prove that it had compelling and extraordinary conditions because of the impacts of warming on the state, from an increase in wildfires to water shortages to flooding of coastal areas.

"This is what your staff told you, and then you come out and say, 'It doesn't meet ... the test for compelling interests,' " Boxer said. "You're walking the American taxpayers into a lawsuit that you are going to lose."

Johnson argued that it was better for the country to pursue a single national standard - such as the new fuel economy standards, passed by Congress and signed by President Bush last month - instead of what he has called a patchwork approach of regulation by the states.

But several lawmakers took strong issue with his characterization. Under the Clean Air Act, if California is granted a waiver other states are allowed to adopt the state's standards.

"The California standards do not threaten us with a regulatory patchwork," said Sen. Joe Lieberman, independent-Conn., a chief sponsor of climate change legislation in the Senate. "Two standards - one applying to the half of the country that chooses to adopt California standards and one applying to the other half - simply do not make a patchwork."

While the new federal rules would require cars and trucks to get 35 miles per gallon by 2020, California's rules would require vehicles to get significantly better mileage: 44 miles per gallon by 2020. State officials estimate the California rules would cut greenhouse gases 74 percent more than federal law.

Johnson had only one major ally Thursday: Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe, the panel's ranking member and Congress' leading climate change skeptic. He was the only Republican lawmaker to show up at the hearing, which he denounced as political theater.

"The effect that California's politicians are trying to achieve through this waiver provision is something they cannot achieve through federal legislation - even tighter fuel economy standards than what the Congress passed in the energy bill just last month," Inhofe said.

Boxer, who has long clashed with Johnson, said she plans to continue an investigation of how he made his decision. She is requesting e-mails between the White House and EPA, which Johnson said he expects to deliver by Feb. 15.

Johnson admitted he had spoken with the president and other White House officials, but said the decision was his own.

"I was not directed by anyone," he said.

Boxer told Johnson his ruling undermines the central role of his agency in protecting public health and the environment. "You are going against your own agency's mission and you are fulfilling the mission of some special interests," she said.

Boxer, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and 14 other senators introduced a bill late Thursday that would override the EPA and grant the waiver request to California and the other states.