Ethics Newsline®

EPA documents “showed that the Clean Air Act can work for certain sectors of the economy, to reduce greenhouse gases. That’s not what the administration wants to show. They want to show that the Clean Air Act can’t work.”

– A senior official at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), speaking to the New York Times last week about White House efforts to water down findings supporting the regulation of greenhouse gases. The EPA emailed its original analysis to the White House last December after the Supreme Court ordered the agency to determine any danger posed by greenhouse gases. The White House refused to open the email, replying that the EPA’s findings would not be acknowledged. After six months of pressure from the White House, the EPA’s original findings have been slashed and weakened, eliminating “large sections of the original analysis that supported regulation, including a finding that tough regulation of motor vehicle emissions could produce $500 billion to $2 trillion in economic benefits over the next 32 years,” reports the Times.

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“I find it troubling, not only that the Department of Defense is in flagrant violation of final orders issued by the EPA, but that DOD is now attempting to circumvent the law and Congress’ intent by calling on the Department of Justice and the Office of Management and the Budget to intervene. The EPA is the expert agency charged by Congress with enforcing our environmental laws, and the Administration needs to allow them to do their job to protect the public health and safety.”

– Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, in a statement criticizing the Pentagon for refusing to cooperate with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in cleaning up toxic and pollution-ridden sites that pose “imminent and substantial” dangers to the public health and the environment. The Department of Defense (DOD) has refused to sign agreements, known as final orders, requiring the cleanup of 12 military sites, and is resisting cleanup orders for three other badly damaged sites, asking the Justice Department to block enforcement efforts by the EPA, reports the Washington Post.

Sources: Washington Post, June 30 — New York Times, June 25.

For more information, see: Related Newsline story, Jan. 29, 2007 — Related Newsline story, June 13, 2005.