Published: March 14, 2008 06:31 am            

House chairman subpoenas EPA for greenhouse gas waiver documents

Washington — A House committee chairman issued a subpoena Thursday to force the Environmental Protection Agency to turn over 196 internal documents about its decision to deny California permission to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks.

At least 16 other states were also blocked by the EPA denial from adopting California's tailpipe controls.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who chairs the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, announced the subpoena after negotiating unsuccessfully to get EPA to turn over unredacted versions of the documents on the waiver decision.

"These documents must be provided to the committee because they are relevant to the examination of the administration's decision to reject California's efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles," Waxman said. "The desire to conceal embarrassing facts is not a valid legal basis for withholding these documents from the committee."

An EPA spokesman did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

Waxman is also still seeking hundreds of communications between EPA and the White House and Justice Department over the waiver decision. He had set a Wednesday deadline for EPA to set a schedule to produce them. Although EPA did not meet that deadline, negotiations on those documents were ongoing, Waxman spokeswoman Karen Lightfoot said.

Waxman and other Democrats have accused EPA of denying California the greenhouse gas waiver for political, not scientific, reasons. EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson has denied that, but he has refused under congressional questioning to say whether the White House advised him against the waiver.

The Bush administration has opposed mandatory controls on greenhouse gas emissions like those California wants to pursue.

California's law would have forced automakers to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent in new cars and light trucks by 2016.

In denying California the Clean Air Act waiver needed to implement its law, Johnson said Congress' new fuel efficiency standards are a better way to go because they provide a national approach. California isn't alone in suffering the effects of global warming and so doesn't need its own solution, Johnson said.

Thursday's was the second subpoena Waxman has issued to EPA over Johnson's December decision. Waxman earlier subpoenaed an internal power point presentation that, like other documents that have emerged, showed that top career staff at EPA advised Johnson in favor of granting the waiver.

        

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