EPA head Stephen Johnson.
Photo: epa.gov
Instead of deciding whether greenhouse-gas emissions endanger human health and welfare and formulating standards to reduce them — as the Supreme Court ordered — the EPA will run out the clock for the next few months soliciting more public comment. The Supreme Court ordered the EPA last year to decide on the GHG-endangerment question, or at the very least, to think up a really good excuse why it hadn’t decided. However, today the agency will essentially announce that it’s doing neither and will instead ask for more public comments. The Bush administration has repeatedly sought to stall, alter, and obstruct EPA staff findings on the impact of greenhouse gases throughout the entire process, and the meddling continues today. The Washington Post is reporting that the administration kept EPA staff from submitting a supporting document with today’s announcement that outlined the benefits of reducing GHG emissions. However, an EPA spokesperson tried to spin the new delay as democracy in action, declaring, “We’re going to be more transparent than we’ve been, laying it all out and saying, ‘How should we do this?'”
