Cheney Repeatedly Met With Auto Execs Before White House Killed California’s Emissions Law

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/12/21/cheney-epa-califronia/

Cheney Repeatedly Met With Auto Execs Before White House Killed California’s Emissions Law


Before EPA administrator Stephen L. Johnson “answered the pleas of industry executives” by announcing his “decision to deny California the right to regulate greenhouse gases from vehicles,” auto executives directly appealed to Vice President Cheney. EPA staffers told the LA Times that Johnson “made his decision” only after Cheney met with the executives.

On multiple occasions in October and November, Cheney and White House staff members met with industry executives, including the CEOs of Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler. At the meetings, the executives objected to California’s proposed fuel economy standards:

In meetings in October with Mr. Cheney and sessions with White House staff members, auto executives made clear that they were concerned not just about the fuel economy measures in the bill but also about the California proposal for stricter emissions standards.

Johnson explained his decision to thwart California by saying that the new energy bill, which the auto industry supported and President Bush signed into law on Wednesday, “made the proposed California standards unnecessary.” One EPA staffer says Johnson’s decision was part of Cheney’s deal with the industry execs brokered at the meetings:

“Clearly the White House said, ‘We’re going to get EPA out of the way and get California out of the way. If you give us this energy bill, then we’re done, the deal is done,’” said one staffer.

Since taking office, Cheney has taken “a decisive role to undercut long-standing environmental regulations for the benefit of business” while undermining any real action to combat climate change. For example, he stacked the Committee on Environmental Quality with industry heavyweights, killing Bush’s 2000 campaign promise to place caps on carbon emissions. In 2001, his infamous energy task force also ordered the EPA to “reconsider” a rule requiring stricter pollution controls on power and oil refinery plants.

More recently, since February, Cheney has also quietly maneuvered to exert increased control over environmental policy by federal agencies — particularly the regulations on greenhouse gas emissions.

[spanone]

1. i bet mr cheney's price was reasonable, considering he's the most powerful man on earth

[BonnieJW]

2. I admit ignorance.

I can understand the EPA going after a state that doesn't meet EPA standards, but how can the EPA go after a state that exceeds them? How can the EPA have that kind of oversight regarding a state?

[Uncle Joe]

7. I don't believe logic, common sense or legality come in to play here.

Those states are making the Cheney/Bush EPA look bad, because their EPA doesn't have the integrity to do it's own job, as they are beholden to the corporations first,last and in the middle.

[fenriswolf]

17. california sued the epa to do its job

and regulate exhaust emmisions from vehicles a while ago, but we had to get the epa to own up to the fact that it is up to them to regulate it in the first place. Now that we got them doing their job the bush and co. is now using them as a ploy to stop anyone from increasing efficiency because "it is the epa's job".

[The Stranger]

3. Didn't the Supreme Court rule in the State of California's favor?

[petepillow]

8. would it even matter? we all know now that Cheney outranks all other govt branches

and besides, even if he didn't, he's immune to US law.

:eyes:

[The Stranger]

14. Right, I know. And maybe I was imaging it, but I thought California won its fight with the EPA.

[babylonsister]

4. RELATED: U.S. blocks states on emissions

U.S. blocks states on emissions
Maryland, other states sought stricter curbs

By Tom Pelton | Sun reporter
December 20, 2007


The Bush administration announced yesterday that it will block efforts by Maryland, California and 15 other states to cut emissions of global warming gases from cars and trucks.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen L. Johnson said improved fuel efficiency standards passed Tuesday by the House of Representatives and signed yesterday by President Bush were good enough.

Those standards - which had not been raised in more than three decades - require new vehicles to have an average of 35 miles per gallon by 2020, up from 25 miles per gallon today.

"This will produce some of the largest greenhouse gas cuts in our nation's history," Johnson said during a telephone news conference. "I believe this is a better approach than if individual states acted alone" to create "a patchwork of state rules."

Many environmentalists and Democrats praised Bush's signing of the fuel efficiency bill yesterday morning, in part because they knew that burning less gasoline would have the side effect of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from tailpipes.

But they expressed outrage yesterday evening when the Bush administration used that bill-signing to justify blocking more stringent programs by California, Maryland and other states to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles.

more...

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/bal-te.epa20dec20,0,767951.story?coll=bal_tab01_layout

********************

Waxman warns EPA: Don't destroy those documents

by Matthew Hay Brown

Rep. Henry A. Waxman opened an investigation into an EPA decision to stop California from regulating greenhouse gas emissions today with a warning to the agency’s administrator: Don’t destroy those documents.

Waxman, the Los Angeles Democrat who chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, wants to know why Stephen L. Johnson denied a request by the State of California to begin limiting greenhouse gas emissions from new automobiles.

“Prior to making this decision you assured the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, as well as the state of California and many others, that you would make this decision on the merits,” Waxman wrote to Johnson in a letter released by his office.

“It does not appear that you fulfilled that commitment,” Waxman wrote. “Your decision appears to have ignored the evidence before the agency and the requirements of the Clean Air Act. In fact, reports indicate that you overruled the unanimous recommendations of EPA’s legal and technical staffs in rejecting California’s petition.

“Your decision not only has important consequences to our nation, but it raises serious questions about the integrity of the decision-making process.”

Waxman told Johnson his committee was investigating that process, and asked the administrator to produce all relevant documents not already on the public record.

“This request includes all communications within the agency and all communications between the agency and persons outside the agency, including persons in the White House, related to the California waiver request,” he wrote. “And all agency staff should be notified immediately to preserve all documents relating to the California waiver request.”

more...

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2007/12...

[Eurobabe]

5. Cheney also met with Bambi before he slew "Mother."

[petepillow]

9. NICE. sometimes evil CAN be funny

:7

[ProSense]

6. The VP of Big Oil Interests strikes again

Cheney vs. Environment: Killing the Forests for the Trees

[hunter]

10. Of course he did.

Is there any Federal rottenness he doesn't have a hand in?

Maybe Dubai will offer refuge to this evil toad when our national nightmare is over.

There he can live out his natural days in a protected compound, far, far away from us, surrounded by Blackwater sycophants catering to his every whim and apologizing to him profusely whenever he happens to shoot them in the face.

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. Just like he did with the oil execs before 9/11, and with the CIA before Iraq.

That old dog needs to stop hunting. He's sunk us enough.

[gatorboy]

12. What does EPA stand for again?

:sarcasm: What a friggin' crock!

[mcg]

19. Under Cheney? the Environmental Polluters Association

[marmar]

13. Anything corrupt or deviant involving the federal government.....

.... has Cheney's paw prints on it.

[samsingh]

15. bet he met with oil execs

and maybe even the taliban to see if a pipeline could go through afganistan

[Pastiche423]

18. No bet about it

He did.

[earthboundmisfit]

16. A comforting thought would be the D*ck's ultimate Karma

I cannot think of anything bad enough for him, but surely just the perfect thing is out there somewhere...

[NuttyFluffers]

20. it's sad, but sh*t like this makes taking mass transit and high mpg cars a political statement

and since i love making political statements that actually cost imperial assholes $$ i like riding my mass transit. mmm, mass transit...

in a better world we wouldn't have to worry about every economic poke in the eye against the "cruel overlords."