Did the White House meddle in California's clean air law?

Henry Waxman, the Democratic congressman from Beverly Hills, says that's exactly what happened when the EPA denied California's tailpipe law, and he promptly gets slapped around a bit for speaking out. Richard Simon has the details:

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency was preparing to join his staff in supporting California's bid to regulate greenhouse gas emissions in vehicles -- until he consulted with the White House, a congressman leading an investigation into the decision said Monday.

"It appears that the White House played a significant role in the reversal of the EPA decision," said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Waxman's comments drew a sharp rebuke from the panel's top Republican, Rep. Thomas M. Davis III of Virginia, who called the chairman's allegation "a knee-jerk conclusion of nefarious intent by the White House derived from a manifestly incomplete investigation."

EPA honcho Stephen L. Johnson denies that blocking the state's tailpipe emissions law had anything to do with politics. But Waxman says he has 27,000 pages of records and interviews that tell a different tale. Draw your own conclusions from the facts in Richard Simon's full story.

-Veronique de Turenne

Photo: Los Angeles Times

Comments

[bob]

I have been watching the Waxman hearing with Johnson today. He is completely stonewalling Congress on the issue of White House involvement in science meddling.

This man is a toady of the Bush administration. He is worse than Alberto Gonzales.

Stephen Johnson needs to resign.

[David]

Let me borrow a line from latimes and modify it slightly....
"If you are not comepetent enough to make environmetal decisions you may read environmental rulings, but you may not make rulings."