The Gray Lady’s editorial board offered up a big lump of coal to President Bush’s EPA chief in a Christmas Day editorial. The NYT notes that even former GOP-appointed EPA leaders are frustrated with Stephen Johnson’s tenure at the nation’s top environmental enforcer. Money quote: “It was Mr. Johnson who refused to grant California a normally routine waiver that would have allowed it to impose its own greenhouse gas standards on cars and trucks. It was Mr. Johnson who was trotted out to explain why the administration could not possibly fulfill the Supreme Court’s mandate before leaving office. And it was Mr. Johnson, in one final burst of negativity, who declared last week that his agency was under no obligation to even consider greenhouse gas emissions when deciding whether to allow a new coal-fired power plant to go forward.”
