Pressure building on EPA chief to quit, vehicle CO2 emissions issue play a role
Filed under: Legislation and Policy, Green Daily
Remember EPA head Stephen Johnson? His tale has been keeping us busy for a while, particularly because he's been battling with California over the state's desire to regulate tailpipe emissions, something Johnson says they can't do. Johnson has found other ways to slow down emissions regulations and skip out on meeting with Democratic Senators. And let's not forget this story about Johnson. Whew.After all this, former Congressman Walter Fauntroy has drawn up a series of reasons why Johnson Must Go. The petition calls on Johnson to resign and specifically points out the following charge relating to vehicle issues:
In August 2003, the Bush Administration denied a petition to regulate CO2 emissions from motor vehicles by deciding that CO2 was not a pollutant under the Clean Air Act. In April 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled that determination in Massachusetts v. EPA, which ruled that "If EPA makes a finding of endangerment, the Clean Air Act requires the agency to regulate emissions of the deleterious pollutant from new motor vehicles." Johnson's EPA set ozone pollution limits at unhealthy levels after rejecting the recommendations of the EPA's own scientists -- and then weakened those limits further after a late-night intervention by President Bush on the eve of announcing the new standards.
ABG reader Marty O. said the call was a "Cool New Web Site For [The EPA] Boss." Whaddya think?[Source: Johnson Must Go, Thanks to Marty .O for the tip!]












Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-19-2008 @ 7:42PM
Dad said...
Wow, if you disagree, you must be fired. Wow, talk about intolerance. Sounds like a "liberal" mindset. We only give people a second chance if we like them and agree with them.
Nice to know nothing has changed. Democrats are still intolerant of anyone who they disagree with.
And the beat goes on.
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6-19-2008 @ 7:51PM
Chris said...
If CO2 is a pollutant, then I guess I should stop drinking pop.
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6-19-2008 @ 7:55PM
vfx said...
S.B.
You missed this one:
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/rep_henry_waxman_threatening_t.php
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6-19-2008 @ 10:18PM
toby said...
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=yARocrZVZ9Y
this sums up his attitudes and disrespect..
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6-20-2008 @ 4:16AM
me2 said...
The EPA is a total joke.
The biggest polluters around are modified diesel pickup trucks. The aftermarket sells tuners for them by the thousands, none of which are EPA approved. The emissions from an over fueled diesel engine are incredible. If you don't believe me, look at some of the pictures on the diesel truck enthusiast websites. The amount of soot and unburnt hydrocarbons these trucks emit is incredible. Thousands of times worse than a gasoline engine.
The other thing diesel truck owners do is remove the stock exhaust systems, including the catalytic converters. Massive NOx emissions operating under heavy loads, as these trucks regularly are.
So what does the EPA do about this ? Nothing.
Does the EPA shut down the manufacturers of these products ? No. Do they shut down the websites that endorse these products and teach the users how to modify their trucks ? No. Do they hunt down the people that put up smoke show videos on youtube ? No.
The modifications are easy to spot. ECMs with chips, tapped wiring harnesses, non stock exhaust components. Do they train inspectors to find these modifications ?
Nope.
The EPA is a total joke. It needs new leadership.
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6-20-2008 @ 10:22AM
SirMikan said...
The EPA is staffed by concerned, conservation-minded people. Except Mr. Johnson.
The EPA is very much concerned with diesel tuners. Most of the worst ones get around regulation by proclaiming "For Off-Road Use Only." Many of the tuner boxes are, in fact, tested and approved by CARB. There is a database of approved devices on the CARB website.
The big problem is that it is up to the states to monitor in-use vehicle emissions, and many don't have the facilities or requirements to periodically test vehicle emissions, letting many people get away with massive tampering of their exhaust systems.
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6-20-2008 @ 10:41AM
GoodCheer said...
"All GHGs but CO2 are now in control, and levels are falling, except for CO2, and CO2 is not the most important. H2O is."
Levels of H2O are now falling?
I can't help but think that the reason the EPA employs scientists is to have good data and good recommendations to make. To operate on the best possible information.
So if you operate against the recommendations of its own scientists, then clearly something is wrong.
"Do [the EPA] train inspectors to find these modifications?"
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the people who do vehicle inspections of any kind are EPA personnel. I think all such inspections are conducted by state agencies, directed by state mandates, which in turn are informed by EPA regulations. The EPA does indeed have standards for particulate and other emissions, but they are too far removed from enforcement to arrest monster-truck builders.
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6-20-2008 @ 11:33AM
Dean said...
"If CO2 is a pollutant, then I guess I should stop drinking pop."
Stop breathing too. The average human emits almost 1 kg of CO2 per day.
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6-20-2008 @ 1:19PM
Michael Hippenhammer said...
It's about time this idiot gets his walking papers! It time to stop burying our heads in the sand and face the fact that the auto industry must change. If the American car companies and legislators try to keep the status quo we will lose in the end and we we will not have an American car company. They will lose to all the other companies that will and do offer better fuel mileage. Efficiency, efficiency, efficiency!!!!!!
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6-20-2008 @ 1:56PM
vfx said...
Friday update:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/200971.php
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6-20-2008 @ 3:42PM
Bill said...
Carbon taxes are going to be very attractive for cash-strapped states like California.
For those states seeking revenue wherever they can get it I bet state-level carbon taxes will add close to $1/gallon to fuel prices, and then get dumped in the general fund (not highway fund).
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6-21-2008 @ 2:41PM
pixelnate said...
Stan Peterson said, "The CARB should tend to its knitting, and clean the LA Basin of bad-air, and real genuine toxics like SOx, NOx, HVOCs and PM10 & PM2.5."
And I agree with him. CO2 is not a pollutant people. It is a food source for plants. It's elementary school science, trees and plants *absorb* CO2 and give off oxygen in the process. It pisses me off to no end to hear all of these Al Gore followers bitch and moan about CO2 levels being too high. If you are so friggin' concerned about CO2, then go PLANT A TREE! CO or carbon MONOXIDE is a pollutant, carbon DIOXIDE is NOT!
The whole CO2 debate is laying the groundwork for our wonderful legislators (worthless SOBs) to start taxing people based on the amount of CO2 they create, i.e. by breathing. It's not bad enough that we are already taxed through the nose, but soon enough we will be paying them for the privilege of being alive.
Wake up, before they put us all to sleep.
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7-02-2008 @ 7:48PM
Stan Peterson said...
Ask a lib when he demands cuts in CO2 of 20%, which 2.8 hours a day, he proposes to stop breathing?
I urge them to do even better. Stop breathing, Permanently.
Why not ask the lib to help GAIA by suicide. Urge them ... Just Do It! Do It Now!
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7-02-2008 @ 7:49PM
Stan Peterson said...
The worst bad-air remaining in the USA, occurs in the LA Basin. CARBite bureaucrats have reduced the bad-air days from 275 per year to 25-30 per year, since the early 1970s. A great improvement, but insufficient.
The rest of the country's cities, do not have but a few days of bad-air, and most times it is a "technical violation". In that some single 15 minute reading on one of several dozen sensors, reports and elevated reading. That one reading creates a bad-air day for the entire metroplitan area.
So CARB still has a job to do and others have caught up, and past them. Most all other clean air regulators hav edoenthe equal or better.
Their job is not done, but they want to undertake a quixotic attempt to de-carbonize an area of the planet measuring less than 0.02% of the planets land area?
What possible good would that do? Even if indeed you concede that it needs doing at all? The CO2 AGW issue is full of increasing scientific contention. All GHGs but CO2 are now in control, and levels are falling, except for CO2, and CO2 is not the most important. H2O is.
The CARB should tend to its knitting, and clean the LA Basin of bad-air, and real genuine toxics like SOx, NOx, HVOCs and PM10 & PM2.5. That is its assigned job and charter. Just do it!
Leave the global regulations for international global problem solving.
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