NEWS

EPA claims White House rejected pollution finding

06/26/2008

By FELICITY BARRINGER
THE NEW YORK TIMES

The White House in December refused to accept the Environmental Protection Agency’s conclusion that greenhouse gases are pollutants that must be controlled, telling agency officials that an e-mail message containing the document would not be opened, senior EPA officials said last week.

The document, which ended up in e-mail limbo, without official status, was the EPA’s answer to a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that required it to determine whether greenhouse gases represent a danger to health or the environment, the officials said.

This week, more than six months later, the EPA is set to respond by releasing a watered-down version of the original proposal that offers no conclusion. Instead, the document reviews the legal and economic issues presented by declaring greenhouse gases a pollutant.

During the past five days, said the officials, the White House successfully put pressure on the EPA to eliminate large sections of the original analysis that supported regulations, including a finding that tough regulation of motor-vehicle emissions could produce $500 billion to $2 trillion in economic benefits over the next 32 years. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.

Both documents, as prepared by the EPA "showed that the Clean Air Act can work for certain sectors of the economy to reduce greenhouse gases," one of the senior EPA officials said. "That’s not what the administration wants to show. They want to show that the Clean Air Act can’t work."

The Bush administration’s climate-change policies have been evolving during the past two years.

It now accepts the work of government scientists studying global warming, such as last week’s review forecasting more drenching rains, parching droughts and intense hurricanes as global temperatures warm (climatescience.gov).

But no administration decisions have supported the regulation of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act or other environmental laws.

Tony Fratto, a White House spokesman, refused to comment on discussions between the White House and the Environmental Protection Agency. Asked about changes in the original report, Fratto said, "It’s the EPA that determines what analysis it wants to make available" in its documents.

The new document, a road map laying out the issues involved in regulation, is to be signed by Stephen Johnson, the agency’s administrator, and published as early as Wednesday.