Wonk Room reports that incoming Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson issued a memorandum to all EPA staff that stated, “I will uphold the values of scientific integrity, rule of law and transparency every day.”
In his WR post Brad Johnson shows how the new director’s communication to her staff also was an indictment of the previous director’s malfeasance.
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“scientific judgments . . . suppressed, misrepresented or distorted by political agendas”
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“policy decisions should not be disguised as scientific findings”
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“EPA cannot misinterpret or ignore the language Congress has used”
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“EPA cannot turn a blind eye to the court’s decision or procrastinate in complying”
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“we are not doing an adequate job of assessing and managing the risks of chemicals”
Posts by this blog comprise a similar indictment.
- This Will Kill Ya
- In mid-2006, there was a scientific rebellion inside the EPA, with Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility writing to Stephen Johnson, “The pesticides are poison, the scientific experts all agree but the businessman with the friends who sell the stuff gets to decide what the rules are. This is hardly an unusual case or even the worst one I have seen but it is a clear example of why so many Americans are sick. In millions of little ways within every agency and industry and economic sector we have been given toxic policy. A steady diet over years is killing us.”
- Undisclosed Risk to Investors
- The EPA proceeded as if the Supreme Court never had ruled on Mass v. EPA,. The Supreme Court declared that GHGs (Green House Gas emissions) are air pollutants under the federal Clean Air Act, which obliged the US Environmental Protection Agency to stop its ignoring its responsibility and regulate them.
- Methyl Iodide Threat Grows in California and Florida
- After intense political pressure — exerted by Agency officials perceived to be too closely aligned with the pesticide industry and former EPA officials now representing the pesticide and agricultural community — EPA Pesticide Program staff “once again decided to override the concerns of a large body of scientists, including 5 chemistry Nobel laureates, by approving the use of methyl iodide, a highly toxic pesticide.
- Censorship during War (against the environment) Times
- The White House censored what the the top public health official of the United States had to say to the Senate on the health impact of global warming. the administration cut her testimony in half.
- Ecocidal Ideology
- At the end of 2007 Johnson denied California’s petition to regulate greenhouse gas emissions for cars and trucks in the state. Senator Boxer then indicated that Johnson went against the EPA’s own legal and technical experts. Mark Lazen noted at the time that Johnson lacked any legal basis for the decision since several court rulings aready had backed up the rights of states to regulate vehicle emissions. “What Mr. Johnson’s baseless decision really reflects is the howling of the traditional auto industry funneled through Dick Cheney and an administration determined to defend oil to the last.”
- It’s Getting Even Worse
- When it became apparent that the McCain / Palin ticket was destined to fail, the Bush administration has submitted a proposal to the EPA that would weaken severely the Stream Buffer Rule, something that had been a target since the Reagan era. The Bush administration already had relaxed Clean Water Act safeguards that protected Appalachian mountain streams from mountaintop removal mines and 2,000 miles of mountain streams in Appalachia were buried by mountaintop removal waste, wiping out these streams and causing flooding and destruction in the surrounding communities. Repeal of the buffer zone rule would have allowed more than 1,000 miles of streams to be destroyed each decade into the future. “Permanently destroying thousands of miles of mountain streams is more than irresponsible; it is insane,” witnessed one advocate.
- Thinking about Momentum
- Michael Hoexter identified a set of errors, which are applicable to the Bush / Cheney war upon the environment.
- Just Following Orders
- And, just before the end of this war against work by the EPA, it was reported that the EPA routinely had allowed companies to keep secret new information about their chemicals, “including compounds that have been shown to cause cancer and respiratory problems, …despite a federal law calling for public notice of any new information through the EPA’s program monitoring chemicals that pose substantial risk.”
More from HuffPo contributor and Sierra Club deputy press secretary, Josh Domer,.
2 Comments
Talk about taking on a tough job, LJ, Amanda Peterka writes:
Even more from a former EPA analyst, who explains “how the governmental body set up to protect the environment has been undermined by political pressure and industry.”