No big surprises here, I’m afraid
On Wednesday Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Stephen Johnson denied California’s request because the state did not meet certain legal requirements for being permitted its own emissions limits.
But Friday The Los Angeles Times cited several sources inside and outside the agency as saying that EPA staff who had studied the issue for months had advised Johnson that the opposite was true.
“California met every criteria … on the merits. The same criteria we have used for the last 40 years on all the other waivers,” one EPA staff member told the Times. “We told him (Johnson) that. All the briefings we have given him laid out the facts.”
California Air Resources Board Chairwoman Mary Nichols told the Times she had learned from EPA staff that they were over-ruled by Johnson.
Nichols said the decision showed that President George W. Bush’s administration “ignores the science and ignores the law to reach the politically convenient conclusion.”
US environment chief ignored advice on Cal. emissions: report