12-21-07 by dugan
Today’s award for worst job in the world goes to EPA spokeswoman Jennifer Wood. She’s saying that an EPA staff Powerpoint presentation defending California’s right to regulate auto emissions can’t be found.
From the the San Francisco Chronicle:
"The EPA’s legal staff reportedly prepared a PowerPoint presentation advising [EPA chief Stephen] Johnson that if he denied California’s waiver request and the state sued, the EPA was likely to lose, agency staffers told the Washington Post. If he granted the waiver and automakers sued, the staff wrote, "EPA is almost certain to win."
"Wood said agency officials have been unable to find the document. She said the EPA’s general counsel and others who briefed Johnson on the waiver issue insist it was never presented to him."
Rep. Henry Waxman of California had better hurry his investigation of the EPA’s obvious deal with the auto industry. The evidence may be disappearing faster than those CIA torture tapes.
The LA Times also has the story on the unanimous or near-unanimous staff opinion: The EPA didn’t have a legal leg to stand on in denying California’s right to make its own clean air rules, which would clean tailpipe emissions faster than the new federal energy bill.
The other states that planned to follow California are joining the suit to overturn the EPA. The states will almost certainly win, except that they’ll have to spend the money and time to re-fight a battle they’ve already fought all the way to the Supreme Court.
The White House may have miscalculated badly on this imperious decision. EPA chief Stephen Johnson is already looking a lot like Alberto Gonzales.