White House Climate Change Policy -- Delay, Delete, and Deny

[maddezmom]

White House Climate Change Policy -- Delay, Delete, and Deny


The Bush administration continues its strong efforts to censor climate change information that reaches the public and Congress. Recent reports indicate that the White House pressured the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to make changes to its regulatory process regarding climate change and that Vice President Dick Cheney's office was responsible for suppressing key sections of the congressional testimony of a high-level official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Full Stall Ahead

In April 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Massachusetts v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that greenhouse gas emissions are eligible for regulation under the Clean Air Act — a position previously rejected by the administration. Subsequently, EPA would have to either regulate greenhouse gases under the Act or prove emissions are not a risk to public health and welfare and therefore not in need of regulation. In May 2007, the White House ordered the EPA, along with other agencies, to prepare regulatory responses by the end of the year. According to EPA officials, the agency's draft finding and recommendations on the dangers of CO2 emissions, entitled, "Control of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Motor Vehicles," was sent to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in a December 2007 e-mail. Since the Clean Air Act requires EPA to regulate emissions that endanger the public, the so-called endangerment finding carries a legal obligation that the agency take action. Officials at OMB refused to open the e-mail or the draft document, knowing that it may trigger regulatory action on climate change. Climate change is being caused by high concentrations of greenhouse gases in the earth's atmosphere.

Investigations conducted by two committees in the House found that the administration delayed acting on the EPA findings. In fact, despite repeated requests for the EPA information, the White House refused to share any related documents until the records were subpoenaed in April 2008 by the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.

After reviewing the subpoenaed records, Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA), Chair of the House Select Committee, charged the administration with discarding EPA's science and legal-based recommendations to address climate change. Markey reported that the EPA documents supported scientific conclusions that greenhouse gas emissions may "endanger public welfare" and that motor vehicle emissions do contribute to global warming.

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), Chair of the House Oversight Committee, declared the administration's lack of action to be "in violation of the Supreme Court's directive." According to his committee, the draft was the product of about 500 comments from internal EPA review, external federal expert review, and other interagency comments.

more:http://www.ombwatch.org/article/articleprint/4308/-1/%7Bcategory_id%7D