WASHINGTON, DC, January 14, 2009 (ENS) – Scientific integrity and the rule of law will be the “two core values” guiding decisions by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the incoming Obama administration, the president elect’s nominee to head the agency vowed today at her confirmation hearing.

The promises of nominee Lisa Jackson were met with high praise from Democratic senators, who contend the Bush administration has ignored recommendations of the agency’s scientists and undermined its mission to protect public health and the environment.

“Science must be the backbone of what EPA does,” said Jackson, who appeared before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

Nominee for EPA administrator Lisa Jackson (Photo courtesy EPW)

The former head of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection told the committee she would administer EPA with “science as my guide.”

Political appointees “will not compromise the integrity” of agency experts and scientists to advance particular regulatory outcomes, Jackson said, adding that the agency will “operate with unparalleled transparency and openness.”

Jackson would be the first African-American to lead EPA, an agency with some 17,000 employees and a budget of more than $7 billion.

Currently chief of staff to New Jersey Democratic Governor Jon Corzine, Jackson also worked at EPA for 15 years in several jobs related to the Superfund program.

Jackson did not lay out specific priorities during the hearing, but instead outlined five broad objectives – reducing greenhouse gas emissions, curbing other air pollutants, addressing toxic chemicals, cleaning up hazardous waste sites and water protection.

“These five problems are tough, but so is our resolve to conquer them,” Jackson said.

Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat and chair of the committee, hailed Jackson as a “breath of fresh air” and welcomed her comments as “music to my ears.”

With little Republican opposition to the nominee, Boxer suggested the full Senate could easily confirm Jackson as EPA chief early next week.

Helen Sutley is nominated to lead the Council on Environmental Quality (Photo courtesy EPW)

Boxer alluded to a similar easy path for Nancy Sutley, Obama’s pick to head the White House Council on Environmental Quality, CEQ.

Sutley, currently deputy mayor for energy and environment in Los Angeles, said her focus as CEQ chief would be “to ensure that there is a strong science and policy basis for our environmental policy.”

The bulk of the nearly four-hour hearing was focused on Jackson. Democratic senators littered the proceedings with criticism of the Bush administration’s environmental record and of current EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson.

Johnson has drawn the ire of Democrats and environmentalists for a slew of decisions, including his failure to act on climate change and for repeatedly ignoring the recommendations of agency scientists.

“The fact is, I believe the EPA has hurt the American people, made them less safe, over the last eight years,” Boxer said, who called the agency “a shadow” of its former self.

“I am looking for a renewed commitment to EPA’s mission – nothing more, nothing less,” Boxer told Jackson.

EPA under the Bush administration has “fallen into significant disrepute,” said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat. “More than anything else it needs its integrity restored.”

On some key issues – particularly climate change – the Bush administration has refused to act, Democrats noted.

On others, such as reducing harmful emissions from power plants, the Bush EPA finalized controversial rules only to see them rejected by federal courts, added Senator Tom Carper, a Delaware Democrat.

“We start this 111th Congress pretty much where we were eight years ago,” Carper said.

Jackson acknowledged that much of her early work would be dealing with controversial Bush rules and some of the court rulings that have ordered EPA to rewrite regulations.

Among these issues, she promised to revisit Johnson’s controversial decision to deny California’s waiver request to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles. Nineteen other states have said they will follow the California policy as soon as the EPA grants the waiver of weaker federal rules.

In response to questioning, Jackson also pledged to assess risks from coal ash disposal sites similar to two that have recently spilled in Tennessee and Alabama.

“EPA, first and foremost, needs to discuss the state of what’s out there and where might be a horrible accident waiting to happen,” Jackson said.

Republicans on the panel cautioned the EPA nominee against moving too aggressively on climate change and warned that her job will not be easy given the contentious nature of environmental policy and regulation.

Senator George Voinovich makes a point at the confirmation hearing. (Photo courtesy EPW)

“I think it is the most difficult job that one can have in the federal government,” said Senator George Voinovich, an Ohio Republican.

Voinovich urged Jackson to consider the economic impacts of federal environmental rules on states and local communities, particularly in light of the nation’s economic woes.

“You have to consider the impacts these things are going to have on the people,” Voinovich said.

Senator John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican, took direct aim at the issue of global warming, reiterating longstanding concerns by many Republican lawmakers about the costs of limiting emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

“Addressing climate change through the Clean Air Act is a disaster waiting to happen,” Barrasso said, alluding to the controversy over the 2007 Supreme Court decision that found EPA had the authority under the statute to regulate greenhouse gases.

Barrasso said he was worried that “federal laws on the books are being used in ways they were never intended to be used.”

Jackson rejected that concern and reiterated that the Obama administration will tackle global warming with the tools available if Congress fails to pass climate legislation.

She told Barrasso, “The beauty of many environmental laws is that they were meant to address not just the issues of the day but the issues of tomorrow.”

By J.R. Pegg

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WASHINGTON DC, January 8, 2009 (ENS) – The head of the Tennessee Valley Authority today pledged the federal electric utility would do a “first-rate job” cleaning up the mess left from last month’s massive coal ash spill. But at a Congressional committee hearing to examine the spill he faced sharp criticism from senators unconvinced by his promises.

“You need to have a plan to clean this spill up and you don’t have it yet,” said Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat and chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which conducted the hearing. “People will never feel safe there again.”

Residents of Harriman, Tennessee were in attendance at the hearing – the first to examine the December 22 spill at TVA’s Kingston Fossil Plant, located at the confluence of the Emory and Clinch Rivers in eastern Tennessee.

The spill devastated the area when a retaining wall holding back a 60 foot-high pile of wet coal ash gave way, sending a billion gallons of toxic sludge and contaminated water across 400 acres.

One of the houses damaged by the coal ash spill. (Photo courtesy TVA)

Twelve homes and other buildings were buried in more than four feet of sludge, a rail line was displaced and the Emory River was contaminated.

Federal and private analyses have found elevated levels of an array of heavy metals in the water, including arsenic at more than 149 times the maximum allowable levels in one sample.

TVA President and CEO Tom Kilgore testified that the utility is committed to completely remediating the contaminated area and will work to compensate affected residents.

“We’ll start with the people first and the environment comes right after that,” Kilgore said. “We are working 24 hours a day, seven days a week on cleaning this up.”

“It is only in our best interests to do this right,” he said. Kilgore explained that the main thrust of the cleanup effort is to construct barriers to keep the sludge from moving into the river and to begin moving the contaminated material back onto TVA’s property.

To minimize dust and erosion, TVA is spreading grass seed and fertilizer, as well as a liquid dust suppressant on the ashy sludge. The seeding is an immediate, short-term solution and will not be left in place long term, aa TVA plans to recover all the material possible.

TVA President and CEO Tom Kilgore (Photo courtesy TVA)

“Now that we have entered the recovery phase, we are turning our attention to a long-term plan for full recovery and restoration,” Kilgore said. “I cannot tell you at this point how long this might take.”

Boxer said TVA should be doing more than it currently is doing to clean up the area. “This isn’t a harmless mud,” she said. “Seeding the ground with grass is not a permanent solution. Cleanup can be done right or it can be a ticking timebomb.”

The California Democrat pressed Kilgore on TVA’s lack of a plan to deal with two river coves popular with residents.

“We want to recover all that we can recover,” Kilgore said. While TVA does not have plans to clean up the coves, the utility doesn’t have “plans not to,” he said.

“That’s not an answer,” Boxer responded. “That’s not cleanup.”

Boxer also questioned Kilgore about reports that TVA had been warned of the potential failure of the impoundment wall at least twice in the past five years, but balked at a $25 million project to secure the site.

“You went with the cheapest fix, and now you have the most expensive problem,” Boxer said. “The cost of that $25 million is going to seem like pennies compared to what it is going to cost to clean this up.”

Early estimates of cleanup costs are as high as $250 million.

Kilgore defended the utility and cautioned against drawing conclusions before the investigation of the spill is complete. TVA has suggested the retaining wall broke because of heavy rains and cold weather.

“We had no reason to believe it wouldn’t hold,” Kilgore said. “I don’t know what caused this but I don’t think it’s something that betrays the public’s trust in that we were careless.”

This aerial view of the ash spill shows one of two weirs newly built to contain the ash while the Emory River is dredged. (Photo courtesy TVA)

He told the panel it appears that the areas subject to earlier warnings were not the same part of the retaining wall that ruptured. “We had outside experts help us with those fixes – the most expensive solution was not chosen and obviously that looks bad for us,” he said. “I would like to get the failure investigation complete to know exactly what the cause was.”

Boxer said the spill highlights the need for federal regulations to govern the disposal of toxic coal ash, noting that state regulatory efforts have been inconsistent at best.

“The federal government has the power to regulate these wastes, and inaction has allowed this enormous volume of toxic material to go largely unregulated,” she said.

Coal-fired power plants across the country produce some 130 million tons of ash every year. Although some of the ash is recycled into industrial building materials, much of it is either stored in dry landfills or wet lagoons like the one at the Kingston plant.

Amphibious trackhoes are being used to assist in road and rail clearing near the TVA Kingston Fossil Plant. (Photo courtesy TVA)

More than a thousand similar coal ash ponds exist at utilities across the country. A report released Wednesday by environmentalists warned that nearly 100 of them pose a similar or even greater potential danger than the Kingston site.

Boxer said she would press the Obama administration to enact federal rules governing coal ash storage and would question the president-elect’s nominee to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Lisa Jackson, about the issue at her confirmation hearing next week.

“It is critically important that protective standards for coal ash waste be established,” Boxer said. “The EPA doesn’t even need any legislation from us. They have the ability to regulate this and I see it is coming. I hope it is coming.”

Kilgore refrained from endorsing or opposing such a move, saying that TVA “looks forward to following the lead of EPA and Congress to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again.”

Tennessee Republican Senator Lamar Alexander urged his colleagues and TVA to take a long-term view. “We need to turn a short-term regulatory and management failure into a long-term technology development solution,” he said. “We need a series of mini-Manhattan projects on how we can safely and securely use coal.”

Almost 93 percent of all coal consumed in the United States is burned to generate electricity, according to the federal Energy Information Agency.

By J.R. Pegg

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WASHINGTON, DC, November 21, 2008 (ENS) – The order of business in the incoming 111th Congress is beginning to take shape. When lawmakers convene on January 6, 2009, Democrats will be firmly in control of both houses, although today the outcome of several elections is still unclear.

When Democratic President-elect Barack Obama takes office on January 20, both the White House and Congress will be in Democratic hands for the first time in 16 years.

For the environment, this means that climate change legislation will be on the front burner as soon as the new session opens.

The U.S. Capitol at sunrise. November 11,
2008 (Photo credit unknown)

Senator Barbara Boxer of California, who will continue to chair the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, announced Tuesday that she will introduce two pieces of climate legislation in January.

“The first bill will establish a grant program to reduce global warming emissions under the Clean Air Act with up to $15 billion a year available to spur innovations in clean energy, including advanced biofuels,” Boxer said.

Intended as an economic stimulus, Boxer said the bill follows President-elect Barack Obama’s recommendation.

Obama’s short video statement on climate change played at the Governors’ Global Climate Summit convened in California on Tuesday was “music to my ears,” Boxer said.

Obama said, “Few challenges facing America – and the world – are more urgent than combating climate change. The science is beyond dispute and the facts are clear. Sea levels are rising. Coastlines are shrinking. We’ve seen record drought, spreading famine, and storms that are growing stronger with each passing hurricane season.”

“My presidency will mark a new chapter in America’s leadership on climate change that will strengthen our security and create millions of new jobs in the process,” he said.

“Climate change and our dependence on foreign oil, if left unaddressed, will continue to weaken our economy and threaten our national security,” said Obama.

Senator Barbara Boxer of California
(Photo courtesy EPW)

“Clean energy means green jobs,” Boxer said, citing a new report from the U.S. Conference of Mayors estimating that by 2038, another 4.2 million green jobs could be added to the economy.

Boxer also will propose a bill amending the Clean Air Act that directs the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to set up a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gases that meets the goals laid out by the president-elect.

“This bill will reflect the strong partnership we will have with the new administration, and will focus on achieving the emissions reductions needed while restoring the economy,” said Boxer.

Boxer also announced her committee’s first hearing in the 111th Congress. “The hearing will take place as soon as possible after we convene in January, and will be entitled “How Fighting Global Warming is Good for the Economy and Will Create Jobs,” she said.

Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma
(Photo courtesy EPW)

Senate Democrats will have to contend with Republican Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, the ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee and a climate change denier. In his blog on the committee website, Inhofe claims that the planet is cooler now than when President George W. Bush took office and that Arctic ice is growing, not shrinking.

Over in the House of Representatives, the Democratic Caucus Thursday elected California Democrat Henry Waxman as chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce.

He replaces Michigan Congressman John Dingell, who has served for the past 28 years as chairman and ranking member of the committee. Dingell now will serve as chairman emeritus, but Waxman’s ascendency marks a shift away from the influence of the Detroit auto industry and towards cleaner energy and climate concerns.

Waxman said, “Some of the most important challenges we face – energy, climate change, and health care – are under the jurisdiction of the Commerce Committee. In large measure, our success as Congress will depend on how the Commerce Committee performs.”

“Enacting comprehensive energy, climate, and health care reform will not be easy,” said Waxman, but, “The public expects Congress and President-elect Obama to work together to find solutions to the nation’s most pressing problems.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday, “Henry Waxman will bring to the post of Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee the outstanding leadership he has demonstrated as chair of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

“Under his leadership, the committee and the entire caucus will make progress toward making America energy independent, making health care available to all Americans, and addressing the greatest challenge of our time, global warming,” she said.

Congressman Henry Waxman of California
(Photo courtesy Office of the Congressman)

The replacement of Dingell by Waxman could affect the outcome of possible legislation offering financial assistance to the beleagured auto industry, which has requested at least $25 billion to stave off collapse.

Today, Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sent the following letter to the executives of the Ford, General Motors and Chrysler, calling on them to “submit a credible restructuring plan that results in a viable industry, with quality jobs, and economic opportunity for the 21st century while protecting taxpayer investments” by December 2.

“It is critical that you meet this deadline since we have announced we are prepared to come back into session the week of December 8 to consider legislation to assist your industry. We intend to give pertinent agencies within the executive branch, the Government Accountability Office, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, as well as outside experts, the opportunity to comment on your work,” Reid and Pelosi wrote.

Senator Inhofe calls higher fuel efficiency standards that may be a condition of the potential auto industry bailout, “environmental thuggery.”

In a speech on the Senate Floor Thursday, Inhofe said, “The proposed $25 billion bailout of Detroit now appears to have been hijacked by the powerful environmental lobby.”

Quoting a November 19 article in the “Wall Street Journal,” Inhofe said, “the auto bailout has degenerated into a tool to ‘make Detroit a subsidiary of the Sierra Club.’”

“We hear proponents of the auto bailout endlessly say it’s about jobs,” said Inhofe. “But the truth is, this bailout appears to be about environmental lobbies taking over the U.S. auto industry.”

The Congressional balance of power is set, but the actual seat count is still shifting.

Right now, in the Senate, the Democrats hold 55 seats, the Republicans hold 40, and there are two Independents – Joe Lieberman and Bernie Saunders, who caucus with the Democrats.

Three seats are vacant or undecided.

One Illinois seat is vacant as President-elect Barack Obama, a Democrat, has resigned. This seat will be filled by a replacement appointed by a Democratic governor.

Delaware does not yet have a vacancy, but Vice President-elect Joe Biden, a Democrat, is expected to resign on or before inauguration day, January 20, 2009. His seat will be filled by a replacement appointed by a Democratic governor.

In Minnesota, the seat is held by Senator Norm Coleman, who won the 2002 election. While Coleman leads Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party challenger Al Franken by 215 votes, the race remains too close to call. The close margin triggered a mandatory recount, which began on November 19. The recount is not expected to be resolved for at least a month.

In Georgia, a run-off election between Republican incumbent Saxby Chambless and Democratic challenger Jim Martin is underway.

In the House of Representatives, the Democrats hold 255 seats, the Republicans hold 175, and there are no Independents. Five seats are vacant or undecided.

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WASHINGTON, DC, September 24, 2008 (ENS) – The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held a hearing today to review the Bush administration’s record on public health and environmental matters, but it was conducted in the absence of Ranking Member Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, a Republican and former chair of the committee.

Senator Inhofe was not ill or out of town, he boycotted the hearing, and he asked the two government witnesses scheduled to honor his objection. Neither one attended the hearing nor did any of the Republican committee members.

Inhofe’s spokesman Marc Morano said this is the first time the senator has objected to an Environment and Public Works Committee hearing. “Senator Inhofe’s actions were in response to the Majority’s refusal to grant a single Minority requested hearing this entire 110th Congress, despite numerous requests,” said Morano.

Senator Inhofe requested a hearing twice in writing, Morano said, to examine the “emerging questions surrounding ethanol’s effects on world food and livestock feed prices, its economic sustainability, and its transportation and infrastructure needs, its water usage, and numerous other environmental issues.”

Senator James Inhofe
(Photo courtesy EPW)

As the former chairman of the committee when the Republicans controlled the Senate before the 2006 elections, Inhofe granted three minority requests for hearings, said Morano.

A Majority staff source says that, in fact, committee chair Senator Barbara Boxer of California has agreed to hold the ethanol hearing Inhofe requested, but finding a date has been a challenge.

Other Inhofe requests for hearings have been met, according to this source, who said that on August 23, 2007, Boxer permitted Senator Inhofe to chair a hearing in Oklahoma on the Endangered Species Act and the oil industry, a hearing the Oklahoma senator had specifically requested.

Senator Inhofe requested additional hearings on Lieberman-Warner climate change bill, and they did take place as well, the source said.

Today, the Democratic senators on the committee heard from a variety of witnesses who were unanimously critical of the Bush administration’s environmental and public health record.

Witness Jamie Rappaport Clark, executive vice president of Defenders of Wildlife, worked for the federal government for 20 years at the Department of Defense and the Department of the Interior. She served as director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from 1997 to 2001 in the Clinton administration.

“The record of the Bush administration amply demonstrates that it decided to slow-walk the listing of species under the Endangered Species Act,” Clark told the committee.

Jaguars are native to the United States.
(Photo courtesy AFGD)

“The net result of the administration’s policies has been to thwart protection for hundreds of species deserving protection under the act. Species such as jaguars, wolverines and pygmy owls have had Endangered Species Act protections denied or removed by the Bush administration on the dubious and illegal grounds that those species are found in Canada or Mexico and, consequently, protecting them in our own country is not necessary,” she said.

“The Bush administration also has hamstrung recovery of many species by making decisions based on political agendas rather than scientific data,” Clark told the committee.

“The scope and magnitude of political interference revealed by the Interior Department’s Office of Inspector General and the GAO interviews is unprecedented in my experience, but no longer surprising given the unrelenting hostility the Bush administration has shown to the conservation of endangered species,” she said.

Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope underscored Clark’s criticism of the administration’s treatment of endangered species.

But Pope told the committee, the administration’s attempts to dismantle environmental protections have been thwarted by the checks and balances written into the U.S. Constitution.

“The good news is that little of the Bush administration’s affirmative environmental agenda has survived the challenges our system of checks and balances makes possible – Congress, the Courts, the states, and direct intervention by the public has undone most of the legal damage which the Administration sought to do,” Pope said.

“The entire edifice of administration policy on clean air lies shattered in judicial smithereens – and in its place a vigorous, state based air quality protection structure is being put in place in much, but sadly not all, of the country,” said Pope.

Oklahoma’s Muskogee power plant burns coal
and natural gas. (Photo courtesy XPDA)

“The Courts have thrown out the Bush EPA’s mercury rules and interstate transport policy and blocked its efforts to repeal the requirements that power plants be cleaned up when they are expanded or modernized,” Pope said. “During the period when the Administration’s mercury rule was on the books, more than 20 states rejected its permissive emission limits and adopted much more effective rules of their own.”

“For six years the administration sat by while oil imports increased, gas prices rose and global warming became more and more threatening,” said Pope. “It refused to set higher fuel efficiency standards for vehicles even when the data showed that the current trajectory was actually hurting the U.S. auto industry, desiccating its market share.”

“But California acted on its own, and other states virtually stampeded to follow it,” Pope said.

“While EPA has yet to issue the needed waiver for those standards to take effect, that matter is before the Courts, and perhaps more important, both candidates for president have pledged that they will allow California and the 13 other states which have joined it to act on their own,” he said.

Reverend Jim Ball, president and chief executive of the Evangelical Environmental Network, quoted Scripture to the committee, but he also exhorted the members to rely on science.

President George W. Bush addresses a
news conference at the White House.
(Photo by Joyce Boghosian courtesy
the White House)

“Take lead as an example,” said Ball. “As the best scientific evidence demonstrates, it clearly causes harm to children, a vulnerable group within our society over whom we have power. As the most current evidence and analysis by both the EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee and the EPA’s staff scientists suggests, the current standard set in 1978 is clearly outdated and should be strengthened or improved.

“My hope is that when the EPA issues their final ruling in mid-October the EPA Administrator will abide by the unanimous recommendations of the EPA’s own scientific panel as well as his scientific staff,” Ball said.

He also urged more regulation for mercury and for climate-warming greenhouse gases.

“On June 7, 2007, I and other religious community colleagues testified before you on the dangers climate changes poses, especially to the poor, and the ethical reasons for action. The situation is even more urgent now than it was then,” Ball said. “Given the current state of our efforts at the federal level, this represents a tremendous opportunity for the next Congress and administration to do better.”

Senator Barbara Boxer (Photo
courtesy EPW)

Perhaps the strongest criticism of the Bush environmental record came from Chairman Boxer in her opening statement, which cited reports from the investigative arm of Congress, the Government Accountability Office, GAO.

“According to a recent GAO report prepared at my request,” Boxer said, “EPA political officials worked with the White House and the Pentagon to undermine the process for evaluating toxic chemical risks.”

“EPA has severely weakened its Office of Children’s Health Protection and largely ignored its Children’s Health Advisory Committee, as we learned from GAO just last week,” said Boxer.

“EPA’s record on global warming could hardly be worse,” she said. “Despite the president’s campaign promise to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, the White House reversed course and rejected actions to control global warming pollution.”

“In one of its first official acts, the Bush EPA announced that it was suspending the newly strengthened standard for arsenic in tap water. After a public outcry and legislation blocking it, EPA finally retreated,” she said.

The EPA story is the same for soot, smog, and lead standards – all weaker than its own scientists recommended, Boxer said.

“EPA has slowed down its Superfund program to practically a crawl,” Boxer said. “Over the last seven years, the pace of Superfund cleanups has dropped by about 50 percent compared to the last seven years of the prior administration, from about 80 cleanups per year to 40 or less.”

“We just learned that EPA has decided that it will not set a health standard for the toxic rocket fuel perchlorate in our drinking water, even though EPA data show that up to 16.6 million people are exposed to unsafe levels,” said Boxer. “Perchlorate is especially risky for infants and children, because it interferes with their thyroid, which controls normal development.”

“On occasion, EPA has taken a positive step, including the issuance of cleanup orders to the Department of Defense, though more work is needed to ensure DOD follows through,” Boxer said. “Unfortunately, the Bush record of rollbacks overshadows these efforts.”

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WASHINGTON, DC, July 8, 2008 (ENS) – Officials in the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney’s office pressured federal health and environmental officials to edit congressional testimony to downplay the public health impacts of climate change, according to a former senior official with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Senior Senate Democrats contend the allegations of Jason Burnett, the EPA’s former top climate advisor, add to evidence of a concerted effort by the Bush administration to mislead the public about the risks of climate change and to prevent the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases.

Senator Barbara Boxer of California
(Photo courtesy EPW)

“This cover-up is being directed from the White House and the Office of the Vice President,” said Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. “History will judge this Bush administration harshly for recklessly covering up a real threat to the people they are supposed to protect.”

Boxer held a press briefing today to release a July 6 letter from Burnett, an economist who initially worked at the EPA from 2004 through 2006 before resigning due to disagreements over an air pollution rule.

A rare Democrat within the Bush administration, Burnett agreed in 2007 to return to the agency as a climate advisor.

Burnett resigned last month in protest over the EPA’s decision to block California from setting limits on greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles. Under the Clean Air Act, California has the unique power to enact stricter clean air laws than the federal government, but only if the EPA issues a waiver of federal standards. Once California has its waiver, other states can adopt the stricter standard. EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson has declined to issue the waiver, and California has sued seeking to secure it from the federal agency.

After his resignation, Burnett announced his intention to campaign for Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama of Illinois.

Burnett told Boxer that both the White House and Cheney’s office intervened to edit the written testimony of Dr. Julie Gerberding, head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, who testified before Boxer’s committee last October.

Julie Gerberding, MD
(Photo courtesy CDC)

Although the CDC chief noted the serious public health concerns associated with climate change during her remarks, some six pages of her written testimony expanding on the issue were deleted at the behest of the Bush administration.

Officials with the White House and Cheney’s office requested the removal of “any discussion of the human health consequences of climate change,” wrote Burnett, who declined to tell reporters who specifically called for the changes.

Burnett’s letter also details efforts by the administration to influence the EPA’s response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s April 2007 decision in the case of Massachusetts vs EPA. The ruling requires the agency determine whether greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health. An “endangerment” finding would require the EPA to take action to regulate and limit greenhouse gas emissions.

The agency has yet to comply with the ruling – a coalition of 17 states and three major U.S. cities have filed suit in protest.

Last December, Burnett emailed the White House the EPA’s preliminary finding that greenhouse gas emissions “may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public welfare.”

According to Burnett, the White House subsequently asked him not to send the finding.

“When we explained that the document had been sent, I was asked to send a follow-up note saying that the email had been sent in error,” Burnett wrote. I explained that I could not do this because it was not true.”

Heat waves like this one are forecast
to increase in frequency and intensity.
(Photo courtesy NOAA)

The former EPA advisor noted that he was also asked by the White House to retract the message, adding that he refused to comply.

The White House refused to open the email, Boxer said, and “the finding was left in limbo.”

Boxer told reporters the administration’s censorship of the CDC chief’s testimony was part of a “master plan” to weaken EPA’s response to the Supreme Court ruling.

Gerbering’s original testimony detailed a long list of serious public health consequences of climate change, Boxer noted, including direct health and safety effects of severe weather events, health effects from air pollution, allergic diseases, mental health problems, food and water scarcity, and an increase in vector, food and water-borne diseases.

“CDC’s work clearly would lead us to the endangerment finding,” Boxer said.

Burnett contends the administration also sought to alter testimony by EPA Administrator Johnson given to Boxer’s committee on the denial of the California waiver.

Officials from the White House and Cheney’s office called on Burnett to edit Johnson’s testimony to “avoid the phrase ‘greenhouse gas emissions harm the environment,’” the former EPA deputy administrator wrote in the July 6 letter.

“I declined to accept the suggestion … in the end this part of the administrator’s testimony remained as EPA had written it,” Burnett wrote.

Boxer called on Johnson to release “every document” related to EPA’s consideration of whether greenhouse gases endanger public health and to immediately release a notice of proposed rulemaking on how it intends to cut emissions.

Senator Boxer has scheduled a hearing on the issue for July 22 and threatened to subpoena the documents if necessary.

“This is not about me, or about Mr. Johnson, or President Bush, or Vice President Cheney or Mr. Burnett,” she said. “It is about protecting the public and the planet.”

Concerns about the Bush administration’s interference with climate science are hardly new, as the White House has faced a barrage of criticism in the past few years for meddling with climate reports to downplay concerns about global warming.

A report released last year by government watchdogs found that nearly half the 279 climate scientists who responded to a survey reported being pressured to delete references to “global warming” or “climate change” from scientific papers or reports and many said they were prevented from talking to the media or had their work edited.

By J.R. Pegg

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WASHINGTON, DC, May 13, 2008 (ENS) – The circumstances surrounding the resignation of Mary Gade, formerly the U.S. EPA’s regional administrator for the Midwest, are under investigation by an environmental committee of the U.S. Senate.

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee chairman Barbara Boxer of California and committee member Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, both Democrats, are asking the Environmental Protection Agency for answers.

“As you know, Congress and the American people expect EPA to enforce vigorously our public health protections – and to preserve the integrity of the enforcement program by excluding politics from such activities,” the senators wrote in a letter today to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson.

“Against the backdrop of allegations of political intervention in EPA decision-making that have been aired at recent hearings before this Committee, as well as similar allegations that we have heard from EPA staff and seen widely reported in the media, it is important for there to be a full explanation of the circumstances surrounding Ms. Gade’s allegedly forced resignation.”

Former EPA Region 5 Administrator Mary
Gade (Photo courtesy Minnesota
Sea Grant)

On May 2, the “Chicago Tribune” reported that two top aides to Johnson demanded that Gade resign or be fired by June 1, 2008. She has since submitted her resignation and is currently on administrative leave.

According to the Tribune’s story, Gade believed her forced resignation was due to her efforts to push Dow Chemical Company to clean up dioxin contamination in Saginaw Bay and Lake Huron stemming from its Midland, Michigan chemical manufacturing plant. Dioxin is a known carcinogen.

The paper reported that Gade, “has been locked in a heated dispute with Dow about long-delayed plans to clean up dioxin-saturated soil and sediment that extends 50 miles beyond its Midland, Mich., plant into Saginaw Bay and Lake Huron. The company dumped the highly toxic and persistent chemical into local rivers for most of the last century.”

The paper also reported that officials from Dow Chemical had met with EPA officials in Washington in January 2008 because they were unhappy with Gade’s approach, and that Gade’s handling of this issue became the subject of criticism from her superiors in Washington.

Senator Whitehouse and others raised the issue of Gade’s resignation at a hearing last week before an Environment and Public Works subcommittee.

George Gray, EPA’s assistant administrator for the Office of Research and Development, declined to answer questions about Gade, saying the agency does not discuss personnel matters.

The Boxer-Whitehouse letter sets out 19 questions about Gade’s resignation. It seeks information and documents on the basis for EPA’s decision to ask Gade to resign and whether the agency discussed that decision with officials from the White House or from Dow Chemical. The senators also asked for copies of Gade’s most recent performance evaluation.

On January 4, 2008, Gade terminated negotiations with Dow Chemical aimed at a settlement to conduct a study and interim cleanup actions for dioxin contamination along the Tittabawassee River system, the Saginaw River and the Saginaw Bay. The negotiations under the Superfund Act began in October 2007 with the participation of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.

“I am extremely disappointed with this outcome,” said Gade on January 4. “EPA approached negotiations with high hopes and realistic expectations. Our team put in many long hours of good faith efforts that came to an unfortunate end today. EPA is now reviewing its options for ensuring that dioxin contamination in the river system and the Midland area can be fully addressed.”

Dow officials expressed “frustration and disappointment” that Gade had ended negotiations.

David Kepler, Dow’s senior vice president said January 4, “We cannot understand the regional administrator’s decision to terminate negotiations so abruptly. We were prepared to commit immense human and financial resources on early, comprehensive actions, all in full compliance with EPA guidance and regulations.

“We reject Administrator Gade’s characterization in EPA’s press release, and are frustrated that EPA chose to terminate discussions the very day we had committed to submit a follow-up offer,” said Kepler. “This was a real opportunity to actually accelerate resolving the situation; now we’re faced with additional barriers and delays.”

An environmental attorney, Gade was appointed regional administrator of EPA Region 5 in October 2006 to oversee federal environmental programs in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin.

Her more than 20 years of experience includes environmental regulation and enforcement at the federal and state levels, and in the private sector. She had served as director of Illinois EPA under Governor Jim Edgar. During her eight years there, she was a co-founder of the national Environmental Council of States.

Previously, at EPA headquarters in Washington, she served as deputy assistant administrator of the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. She previously held two senior positions at EPA Region 5 as associate division director for Superfund, and deputy director of the Waste Management Division.

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WASHINGTON, DC, April 10, 2008 (ENS) – The U.S. EPA says it is expanding the process for recommending that a chemical be assessed for risk of harm to human health or the environment, “to increase its transparency and efficiency.”

But the senator who heads the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee says the changes really put the risk assessment process directly under the control of the White House.

“In my judgment, these changes to the EPA’s risk assessment program are devastating,” said Senator Barbara Boxer of California who announced she will call a committee oversight hearing to examine the agency’s entire toxics program.

“They put politics before science by letting the White House and federal polluters derail EPA’s scientific assessment of toxic chemicals,” she said. “In the near future, the Government Accountability Office will be issuing a study that I requested, which addresses these issues, and we anticipate an oversight hearing on the EPA’s toxics program shortly.”

The Integrated Risk Information System, IRIS, provides human health risk information describing the potential adverse health effects that may result from exposure to over 540 environmental contaminants.

IRIS includes descriptions of hazard identification and dose-response information, quantitative risk estimates for chronic non-cancer and cancer effects, and access to searchable scientific documentation.

The revisions to the IRIS process for developing chemical assessments announced today will include “listening sessions to allow for the broader participation and engagement of interested parties; and an even more rigorous scientific peer review of IRIS assessments.”

EPA contractors in hazard gear examine
the chemicals found on a suspect
property. (Photo courtesy EPA)

The EPA calls it “an expanded process for recommending a substance be assessed,” and promises “the earlier involvement” of other agencies and the public.

Dr. George Gray, assistant administrator of the Office of Research and Development, who announced the changes today, says he is “confident that these improvements will help our high quality risk assessment process become even more accessible to the scientific community.”

“We recognize that people outside of EPA use this system and have significant knowledge and expertise to offer,” said Gray. “Today’s improvements to the IRIS process will ensure that we continue to have assessments of the highest quality and a process that’s easy to understand and participate in.”

Sounds harmless, but Senator Boxer doesn’t think so.

Boxer says the policy released today “gives federal agencies, such as the Department of Defense, which is a major polluter, a privileged seat at the table to determine which chemicals get assessed and how those assessments are conducted.”

The senator says the change “formalizes a new process to be run by the White House that would take place behind closed doors due to the administration’s refusal to make federal agency comments public.”

Federal, state and international agencies use risk assessments to create public health protections, including drinking water standards, toxic waste cleanup levels, air pollution limits, controls on dangerous chemicals in food and consumer products, worker protections and other safeguards, Boxer points out.

Reforming the IRIS process has been an important goal of EPA Administrator,Stephen Johnson, as reflected in his Action Plan, the agency said in its announcement today.

Gray’s office says the changes were made to “create a more predictable, streamlined, and transparent process for conducting IRIS assessments.”

“A major goal is to define the important role that public and interagency comments and interactions play in the process, and to foster greater communication and sharing of relevant scientific information between experts, interested parties, and EPA,” the agency announcement states.

A one-step access to the major parts of the database has been designed into the online system so the quickviews, the summaries, the toxicological reviews, and the tracking database are more accessible, the agency says.

EPA has also, for the first time, initiated a “data call in” for information to support its literature review of a chemical, and is seeking public comment on this review.

No doubt these features will all be open for comment during the upcoming Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing.

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WASHINGTON, DC, December 6, 2007 (ENS) – A Senate committee approved a landmark global warming bill Wednesday night, calling on the nation to cut greenhouse gas emissions some 70 percent by 2050. Although the measure faces an uphill battle in the full Senate, proponents say the vote signals a growing consensus within Congress and among the American public that the United States needs to take more aggressive action to tackle global warming.

“This is a historic moment for this committee and for this country,” said Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat and chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. “What happened here today will not go unnoticed. The whole world is watching.”

The committee passed the bill by a vote of 11-8 at the close of a contentious hearing that lasted more than nine hours and included consideration of more than 40 amendments.

The lone Republican supporting the measure was Senator John Warner of Virginia, who coauthored the bill with Senator Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut Independent.
Senate Environment and Public Works Committee debates the Warner-Lieberman bill. December 5, 2007 (Photo courtesy EPW)

“The United States simply has to lead on this issue,” Warner told colleagues. “We are the superpower in the world and we’ve got to use our status.”

The bill would establish a complex trading system for emissions credits with the goal of reducing total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions some 20 percent from 2005 levels by 2020 and 70 percent by mid-century.

The trading system, similar to one in the European Union, would allow companies to buy tradeable allowances to emit the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide to ensure the overall reduction targets are met.

An amendment to the bill also requires a national low carbon fuel standard, calling for a five percent cut in the carbon content of transportation fuels by 2015 and a 10 percent cut by 2020.

The bill stands in contrast to the policies of the Bush administration, which has steadfastly opposed any mandatory limits on U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

“This bill is the most far reaching global warming bill in the world,” said Boxer, who said proponents of action now have “the wind at our backs.”
The Independence coal-burning power plant operated by Entergy Arkansas. (Photo courtesyEntergy Arkansas)

The California Democrat said the bill meets two primary goals – to make meaningful cuts in U.S. emissions while keeping the economy strong – but acknowledged that she would favor more aggressive action.

“I don’t think this is a perfect bill,” Boxer said. “So why am I so strongly in favor of keeping our coalition together to move this very strong bill forward, even though it’s not perfect? Because, ladies and gentlemen, we are facing a crisis that will hit our children and our grandchildren the hardest if we don’t act aggressively. Not to act would be wrong, cowardly and irresponsible.”

But Warner’s fellow Republicans remained unconvinced of the plan’s merits, and their comments indicate a partisan divide still lingers.

Republicans on the panel argued that the bill would cause undue harm to the U.S. economy, increase energy prices and do little to address the global issue of rising greenhouse gas emissions.
From left: Senator John Warner, Senator James Inhofe, Senator Barbara Boxer debate amendments to climate emissions control bill. December 5, 2007 (Photo courtesy EPW)

“This bill is all pain and no gain,” said Senator James Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican, who promised “an enormous floor fight” when the full Senate debates the measure.

Inhofe has pledged to filibuster the bill, ensuring it will need 60 votes to pass the narrowly divided Senate. That means proponents must gain the support of at least nine Republicans, a hurdle that could prove difficult.

Idaho Republican Senator Larry Craig offered several amendments to provide “off-ramps,” allowing the cap and trade plan to be modified or abandoned if it is shown to be harming U.S. economic competitiveness or failing to reduce global temperatures.

He also proposed a sunset clause be inserted, mandating China and India adopt similar plans within a decade.

“If we are going to send this country into a long march into the future, let us take everyone with us,” Craig said.

The panel rejected those amendments, which proponents said would effectively kill the plan.

“Allowing China or India to pull down our legislation through inaction is something I simply could not accept,” said Warner.

There are already mechanisms within the bill to encourage China, India and other nations to follow U.S. leadership. One clause calls on the United States to impose tariffs on nations who fail to adopt similar policies.
The Shiheng coal-burning power plant in China’s Shandong province. (Photo courtesy CLP Group)

Republicans claim that language is too weak and likely to set up international trading disputes.

“You’re naive if you think this bill will have some sort of impact on China through osmosis,” said Senator George Voinovich, an Ohio Republican. “They won’t do it.”

The bill’s supporters countered that China, India and others are waiting for the United States to lead and argued that the nation has a moral responsibility to act.

“If we are going to get China to move, we have got to show leadership,” said Senator Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat.

Warner added that if the United States fails to act, “China and India will hide behind America’s skirts of inaction and take no steps of their own.”

Committee members also clashed over amendments to open additional offshore areas to natural gas production and to expand nuclear power.

Boxer argued those are energy production issues not under the jurisdiction of her committee, but it is expected that both issues will reemerge on the Senate floor as senators from all parties raise concerns about how the nation will generate enough clean energy to meet the bill’s targets.

“We’re not going to reach the goal of reducing greenhouse gases that this bill makes without nuclear power,” Lieberman said.

Criticism of the bill was not limited to the Republican side of the aisle. Vermont Independent Bernie Sanders, who voted for the bill, urged his colleagues to tighten the emission targets to 80 percent by 2050.

Scientists are now saying the problem of global warming is “even more severe than previously believed,” Sanders warned colleagues.

New evidence indicates that if industrialized nations do not cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80 percent by 2050 “there is a 50 percent chance we will reach a tipping point at which time massive damage will become unavoidable,” he said.

Sanders’ amendment failed, with Lieberman, Warner and Senator Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, joining nine Republicans to kill the provision.

Lieberman expressed understanding for Sanders’ concern but emphasized he is focused on moving the bill forward, saying, “The most important thing is to get something passed, to get something started.”

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