[courtesy of California Progress Report]

• Next President Will Have to Decide Issue—And Only Obama is Clear on Waiver
• California Taking Other Action

By David Dayen
d-day

Just to update on the EPA's denial of a waiver to California to regulate its own greenhouse gas emissions - the White House is now refusing thousands of documents on the matter to Henry Waxman's Oversight and Government Reform Committee, citing executive privilege:

“"I don't think we've had a situation like this since Richard Nixon was president," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which is conducting the investigation.

“An EPA official, Jason Burnett, has told committee investigators that EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson had favored granting the waiver but denied it after meeting with White House officials. In testimony last month, Johnson refused to say whether he'd discussed the waiver request with Bush.”

by David Dayen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Mike Young

It’s the weekend, which means the Bush Administration’s out trying to gut environmental protections while nobody is reading the news. This weekend, while the press is focused on Scott McClellan’s testimony and presidential campaign flip-flopping from both candidates, what could have been a leading story was buried from the headlines: White House invokes executive privilege in EPA inquiry. Fortunately, the story was not completely ignored, but not enough people will ever hear about it.

by dday [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

We didn't need any more evidence that the Bush Administration uses the executive branch as a political instrument.  But this latest example shows that they will use federal agencies to work to oppose legislative efforts at the state level, making a complete mockery of the entire premise of federalism itself.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Henry Waxman has received information that the Department of Transportation has been lobbying members of Congress to oppose state efforts, sought by California and others, to regulate tailpipe emissions.  California is waiting for an EPA waiver to implement their tailpipe emissions proposal.  The Governor has threatened to sue the EPA if they don't receive that waiver.  The first roadblock that the EPA tried was to appeal to the Supreme Court by claiming that they didn't have the ability to regulate greenhouse gases, but in a landmark decision the Supreme Court said that they did.  So plan B, apparently, is to use the DOT to threaten legislators in automobile-producing districts that their local economies would be severly impacted by any efforts to regulate.  This excerpt is from a letter by Waxman to Transportation Secretary Mary Peters: