And balanced on the biggest wave, You race towards an early grave

More news about the Environmental Pollution Agency:

EPA chief's answers leave Sen. Feinstein frustrated

[...]
EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson refused to answer several basic questions about the California decision and his overall plans for dealing with greenhouse gas emissions.
[...]
When Feinstein asked Johnson if any top staffer recommended denial, the head of the EPA verbally ducked.

"I received hours of briefings from the technical and legal staff, with a wide range of options — legally defensible options," he said.
[...]
"This is unbelievable. You're stonewalling," she said. "The only conclusion I can reach is you are under pressure not to do anything. This is the Environmental Protection Agency — not the administration protection agency."

Memo warned: EPA chief's credibility at risk

A senior Environmental Protection Agency staffer's newly released memo warned that EPA chief Stephen Johnson would lose his credibility and might have to resign if he rejected California's rules limiting greenhouse gases from cars and trucks.

The document, prepared by a top deputy in the EPA's Office of Transportation and Air Quality, is further evidence of the fierce internal struggle that Johnson faced before he ruled against California in December.
Documents released earlier revealed that he overruled the unanimous opinion of his agency's legal and technical staff, who urged him to approve the state's rules.
[...]
documents previously released by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, show that Transportation Secretary Mary Peters joined Michigan lawmakers to lobby the EPA to reject California's request.

Boxer released other documents Tuesday, including an Oct. 31, 2007, e-mail in which a staffer in the EPA's climate change division wrote about trying to convince Johnson that California has the "compelling and extraordinary conditions" required by the Clean Air Act to set its tougher emissions rules.

EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson didn't 'duck' her questions, he lied to Congress. That used to be a crime.

How much worse can it get!? I'm so glad you asked:

EPA Head Unaware of Pressures on States

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday he didn't know of behind-the-scenes efforts by EPA officials to blunt state attempts to reduce mercury emissions from power plants.

Those efforts occurred even as the Bush administration argued in court that states are free to enact tougher mercury controls from power plants
[...]
"Has anyone with EPA ever pressured any state against instituting any more restrictive mercury regulation?" asked Leahy, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"I don't recall having any firsthand knowledge of that," said Johnson. "I don't know if they have, no I don't," he added.

Leahy cautioned Johnson that such pressure on states was inappropriate, and if it did occur, "then the EPA gave misleading information to the courts, which is an extremely serious matter."
[...]
Internal EPA documents obtained by the advocacy group Environmental Defense show attempts over the past two years to bar state efforts to make their plants drastically cut mercury pollution instead of trading for credits that would let them continue it.
[...]
Yet even as the EPA tangled with the states behind the scenes, government lawyers representing the agency were in U.S. District Court in Washington saying states could require more than the federal program. A state restriction on emission allowances "is not a basis for disapproval" of its program by the EPA, the court was told.

EPA Johnson is now on record having lied to the Federal Court and to Congress.

But wait, there's more!

EPA: No Timeline for High Court Request

Nearly a year after being told to do so, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday he couldn't say when he would comply with a Supreme Court directive and determine whether greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles should be regulated.
[...]
Johnson originally had promised a reply to the court's ruling by last fall.

And if you order now we'll include:

EPA Chief Under Fire for Ignoring Scientists

The vast majority of scientists and other specialists at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have withdrawn from a key labor-management partnership, citing rising distrust of the agency’s chief Stephen Johnson.

In a letter to Administrator Johnson, trade unions representing the workers complain that Johnson retaliates against whistle-blowers and union officers, “abuses our good nature and trust,” and ignores the agency’s Principles of Scientific Integrity.

Johnson has faced mounting criticism from within his own agency and a Congressional investigatory panel for allegedly ignoring scientific findings when they have contradicted the Bush administration’s political aims.

Wow, EPA head Johnson not only lied to Congress, lied to a Federal Court, he ignored a command from the Supreme Court.

Before Bush there were actual penalties for any and all of those acts. And now the sentence is death. Our deaths.



Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

The air I breathe, the water I drink , Is selling me short and turning me round

Great Lakes health report withheld by agency
Document has 'alarming evidence' of toxic pollutants, group says, but fed agency says it needs some fixes.

Friday, February 8, 2008

WASHINGTON -- Federal officials are refusing to release a scientific study that contains "alarming evidence" that toxic pollutants threaten the health of residents in Detroit and other Great Lakes cities, a watchdog group alleged Thursday.

The Center for Public Integrity released on its Web site excerpts of the report, which includes information on elevated cancer levels in Wayne and Macomb counties and a Detroit landfill site that contains up to 17 tons of toxic PCBs.

The center said Thursday that the 400-page document was set to be released in July, but was rejected by an official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who said it was incomplete.
[...]
The report was compiled by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a part of the CDC, at the request of the International Joint Commission, an independent board of Canadian and U.S. officials that monitors water quality in the Great Lakes.

The Center for Public Integrity cited emails within the agency, and a letter from the chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee, that raised concerns that the report was being withheld improperly and that Bush administrations including Julie Gerberding, the head of the CDC, had interfered with the work of government scientists.

Gee, would that be the same Julie Gerberding, an appointee of a Bush appointee? The Julie that failed upward after doing such a most excellent job of leading the CDC´s response to the anthrax bioterrorism in 2001? (BTW, how's that whole investigation going? What investigation? Exactly.)

The same Julie Gerberding who had her congressional testimony censored? Yep, that Julie Gerberding.

But wait, there's more!

CDC under investigation over Katrina cancer risk
Congressional committee also looks into whether agency retaliated against scientist

UPDATED: 11:53 p.m. February 08, 2008

A congressional committee is investigating "disturbing allegations" that officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suppressed critical information about cancer dangers posed by trailers housing Hurricane Katrina victims.

The committee also is looking into whether the Atlanta scientist who sought to make the risks public has been the subject of retaliation by the agency.
[...]
De Rosa had been head of the division of toxicology and environmental medicine in CDC's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry since 1992. He was removed from that job last fall and assigned the title of "special assistant."

Though CDC said De Rosa was simply reassigned, he said in an interview that he's been demoted. De Rosa said the public should be concerned about what's transpired.

"The very people they're looking to for answers have been censored," he said.

At issue is whether the agency intentionally delayed or avoided examining the long-term cancer threat posed by formaldehyde fumes in trailers purchased by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to house victims of the August 2005 hurricane. FEMA initially said air quality in the trailers was safe if they were properly ventilated.
[...]
De Rosa said Friday that he raised his concerns about formaldehyde, the Great Lakes report and other issues through proper channels within the CDC.

"It's sort of like speaking truth to authority. I knew I was doing it at my peril," he said.

Then, in what investigators said was apparently retaliation, De Rosa was removed from his managerial job and in October given an "unsatisfactory" job performance assessment. Before, De Rosa said, he had received good to excellent ratings.

NASA, FEMA, CDC, EPA, FBI, DOJ ... these are jut a few of the Federal agencies that have had career professionals expert opinions censored by the Bush regime, and if the professionals spoke out they were demoted or fired, and slimed.

Maybe next year we can do something to reverse this trend. A good start would be investigations followed by prison time.




Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

Following Dick Cheney's lead

The EPA declares executive privilege and refuses to explain why it said no for the first time in 32 years to California's greenhouse gas regulations:

Invoking executive privilege, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency refused to provide lawmakers Friday with a full explanation of why it rejected California's greenhouse gas regulations.

The EPA informed Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., that many of the documents she had requested contained internal deliberations or attorney-client communications that would not be shared with Congress.

"EPA is concerned about the chilling effect that would occur if agency employees believed their frank and honest opinions and analysis expressed as part of assessing California's waiver request were to be disclosed in a broad setting," EPA Associate Administrator Christopher Bliley wrote.

More than a week after a deadline set by Boxer, the agency gave the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which she chairs, a box of papers with large portions of the relevant documents deleted, Boxer said. The documents omitted key details, including a presentation that, according to Senate aides, predicted EPA would lose a lawsuit if it was taken to court for denying California's waiver.

The refusal to provide a full explanation is the latest twist in a congressional investigation into why the EPA denied California permission to impose what would have been the country's toughest greenhouse gas standards on cars, trucks and sport utility vehicles.

Via Nicole Belle of Crooks and Liars, Think Progress points out that Vice President Dick Cheney met with automakers before the EPA denied California's waver. Gee... doesn't this sound familiar?

Anything to keep us guzzling that 100 dollar a barrel crude, huh, Dick?
(crossposted at Rants from the Rookery)