Subpoena of EPA Global Warming Docs Expected in Select Committee

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Contact: Select Committee, 202-225-4081

Subpoena of EPA Global Warming Docs Expected in Select Committee

WASHINGTON (March 28, 2008) – Next Wednesday, on the one-year anniversary of the landmark global warming Supreme Court case, Massachusetts v. EPA, Chairman Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming will vote to issue a subpoena for documents from the  Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) showing what progress that agency has made in  response to the Court's decision . The Court ruled that the EPA must determine whether heat-trapping emissions endanger public health or welfare, and if they do, that the EPA must regulate these emissions from motor vehicles.

The subpoena follows EPA 's persistent refusal  to hand over documents pertaining to draft regulations on tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions, including a direct refusal to produce the papers by EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson before the Select Committee earlier this month. Yesterday, Johnson issued a letter saying his agency intends to study whether to regulate the emissions that are causing global warming, seen as another delay tactic by Chairman Markey and others who insist global warming is an established fact and needs immediate action.

"I have tried to work with Administrator Johnson to acquire these important documents, and Congress and the American people have every right to see them," said Markey. "Johnson's strategy on producing these documents is the same as his strategy to deal with global warming: delay, deny and distract. The American people deserve better and the planet deserves better."

The subpoena vote will occur at a Select Committee meeting, April 2 at 1:30 p.m. A majority of committee members present and voting is needed to approve the issuance of a subpoena.

A series of conversations and letters between Markey and Johnson on these documents have occurred over the last few months, culminating with Johnson's refusal to hand over the draft regulations two weeks ago before the Select Committee. In the hearing, Johnson was unable to establish a valid legal basis for withholding the documents from Congress. 
 
The letters can be found on the Select Committee website HERE:

In April of 2007, the Supreme Court directed EPA to determine whether greenhouse gas emissions cause or contribute to air pollution that may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare. If EPA makes this so-called "endangerment finding," the Supreme Court said, then it must regulate these emissions from motor vehicles. In its response to the Supreme Court decision, EPA spent about six months conducting intensive analysis and, according to EPA staff disclosures to Congress, Johnson signed off on the Agency's positive endangerment finding. The endangerment finding, as well as a completed proposal to regulate emissions from motor vehicles (to levels that correspond to a fleet average of 35 miles per gallon by 2018), were forwarded to other White House and federal agencies for review in December. 

According to numerous statements made by Johnson and other Bush administration officials, the proposals were to be released publicly by the end of 2007 and finalized by the end of 2008. That has not occurred. Instead, reports have indicated that EPA has ceased all work in this area and, at the Select Committee’s March 13 hearing, Johnson would not even commit to a firm date on which these documents would be released. Yesterday, Administrator Johnson said in a letter that in  June , the Agency would issue a so-called ‘Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking’ in which it would “discuss and solicit public input,” rather than propose actual regulations to combat global warming, thereby ensuring that no regulatory effort to combat global warming could even begin until after President Bush leaves office.
 
This letter can be found on the Select Committee website HERE.

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