EPA chief urged to resign, accused of misleading Congress

Amid intensifying scrutiny of the US environmental protection agency's (EPA) refusal to act on climate change, four Democratic senators on July 29 asked federal prosecutors to investigate the EPA chief for alleged perjury and obstruction of Congress. The call for a justice department probe of EPA administrator Stephen Johnson–coupled with a plea for his resignation from Democrats–follows a darkening cloud of controversy surrounding the agency. "Johnson's EPA has shown an extraordinary disregard for the law," Barbara Boxer, the California Democrat who chairs the Senate environment committee, told reporters today. "It's unlawful, the things they have done. And by extension, they've shown a disregard for the people that we represent and for all the American people." The EPA has refused repeated requests from Congress to explain its December denial of California's request to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, a move that overruled the agency's own career scientists. In response to the California controversy, the EPA told employees not to talk to internal auditors, Congress or the media, according to a leaked email released yesterday by green campaigners. In the June 16 email, obtained by the campaign group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), the EPA told its officials not to answer questions on pollution enforcement - even those from the agency's in-house auditors. "If you are contacted directly by the [auditors'] office or [congressional investigators] requesting information of any kind… please do not respond to questions or make any statements," the email said. Officials were told to direct all questions to EPA media aides. The issue is whether White House officials, including aides to vice-president Dick Cheney, improperly influenced the EPA's process by pressuring the agency to block California from regulating greenhouse gas emissions. EPA whistleblower Jason Burnett, formerly the agency's No 3 official, has told Boxer's committee he was pressured by the White House to reject the California proposal. When Burnett submitted a draft plan to accept the carbon regulations, he said, Bush administration aides told him to pretend his email was mistakenly sent. "We can no longer pretend a decision on the California [plan] was, to paraphrase [Johnson's] words, 'his and only his' decision when the evidence points to the contrary," Democratic senator Amy Klobuchar said. "And we can no longer pretend that there was no political interference with the science… when time and time again, we see partisan politics prevailing over professionalism and special interest spin prevailing over science." The US justice department did not immediately comment on the Democrats's request for an investigation. PEER, a non-profit group founded to fight political influence on government scientists, said the leaked email silencing EPA employees is proof of a "bunker mentality" at the agency. "The clear intention behind this move is to chill the cubicles by suppressing any uncontrolled release of information," PEER's executive director, Jeff Ruch, said. PEER also questioned whether the email could be an illegal obstruction of the EPA inspector general (IG), which conducts independent audits of the agency. IG auditors are given broad freedom under US law to examine policies at government agencies. Roxanne Smith, an EPA spokeswoman, said the email was partly a response to a 2007 report by agency auditors on how to streamline communications. That report made no specific suggestions about how the EPA could make its process more efficient, however. "There is nothing in the procedure that restricts conversation" between EPA staff and investigators, Smith said via email. "The procedure simply ensures timely responses and assists in tracking and record-keeping obligations."