White House Refused Email, Sends Mixed Messages

More details are emerging about the maneuvers that blocked the Environmental Protection Agency’s finding that greenhouse gases were a threat to public health and welfare and should be regulated.

[ you can read the article that broke the story here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/25/washington/25epa.html... ]

White House officials initially blessed the agency’s efforts to create a basis for restricting emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas produced by human activities, but reversed course after passage of an energy bill last December, a former agency official has told a Congressional committee. He said the White House was won over by the argument, pushed by oil companies and others, that such regulation should not be part of the Bush legacy,

The official, Jason K. Burnett, once a Bush appointee and now an Obama supporter, told the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming that the argument for putting off any carbon dioxide limits was made by “individuals working for particular oil companies, Exxon Mobil,” as well as oil industry trade associations.

He also told the committee that the electric power industry, particularly the Edison Electric Institute, “thought their members would be better served by getting out in front and actively engaging” regulators trying to shape future controls, “rather than trying to fight what they judge to be inevitable.”

A transcript of his statement will be made public by the committee Friday morning. A copy was seen by The New York Times Thursday night. In much of it, Mr. Burnett elaborated on information that has already been made public.

The E.P.A.’s effort to create a framework for regulating greenhouse gases was begun in response to a Supreme Court decision in the spring of 2007. That decision required the agency either to regulate the pollutants or explain why it was not doing so.

The White House’s wishes, Mr. Burnett said, were conveyed to Stephen Johnson by Joel Kaplan, the deputy chief of staff. In mid-November, Mr. Kaplan gave a go-ahead for the E.P.A. to proceed with its plan to propose that greenhouse gases could and should be regulated; on Dec. 5, after the regulatory document doing that had been sent to the Office of Management and Budget for review, he told Mr. Johnson to retract it.

According to Mr. Burnett, Mr. Johnson refused. The O.M.B. subsequently refused to open the e-mail to which the document was attached.

– Felicity Barringer

// NYT DotEarth Blog