An eroding mission at the EPA: 4 part series

[fencesitter]

The first installment of a four part series from the Philadelphia Inquirer exposing the destruction of the EPA during the Bush years.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/front_page/20081207_An_Eroding_Mission_at_EPA.html

An Eroding Mission at EPA
The Bush administration has weakened the agency charged with safeguarding health and the environment.

By John Shiffman and John Sullivan
Inquirer Staff Writers

WASHINGTON - On Dec. 5, 2007, EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson prepared to send the White House an extraordinary document. It declared that climate change imperiled the public welfare - a decision that would trigger the nation's first mandatory global-warming regulations.

Johnson, a career scientist, knew that his draft would meet with resistance from antiregulatory ideologues at the White House, but he believed the science was solid.

According to confidential records reviewed by The Inquirer, Johnson cited strong evidence: rises in sea level, extreme hot and cold days, ecosystem changes, melting glaciers, and more. Minor doubts about long-term effects, he wrote, were not enough to alter his conclusion.

Two sentences in Johnson's draft stood out. In sum: The U.S. emits more greenhouse gases from cars than most countries do from all pollution sources. This fact is so compelling that it alone supports The Administrator's finding.

At 2:10 p.m., Associate Deputy Administrator Jason Burnett e-mailed the climate-change draft to the White House as an attachment.

What happened next became Johnson's defining moment and cemented President Bush's environmental legacy, serving as the low-water mark of a tumultuous era that has left the EPA badly wounded, largely demoralized and, in many ways, emasculated.

White House aides - who had long resisted mandatory regulations as a way to address climate change - knew the gist of what Johnson's finding would be, Burnett said. They also knew that once they opened the attachment, it would become a public record, making it too controversial to rescind. So they didn't open it.

They called Johnson and asked him to take it back.

The law clearly stated that the final decision was the EPA administrator's, not Bush's. Johnson initially resisted - something Burnett admired - but ultimately did as he was told.

Outraged, Burnett resigned.

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a whole lot more!

[Robbien]

1. This article would have had a lot more punch if it were published when it occurred

Now it is just old news. Doesn't take much guts to blow the cover off something after all the perpetrators have been given their walking papers.

[silverweb]

2. EVERY ugly truth needs to come out.

It's the only way people can be educated to understand what's really been happening behind our backs.

It's the only way we can get everyone on board to work to reverse the damage -- and make sure it's never allowed to happen again.