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US agency to be sued over emissions |
 The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has come in for heavy criticism for not playing its part in curbing greenhouse gas emissions, a key contributor to global warming, notes E-Brief News. State Attorney General Jerry Brown said last week that California would sue the EPA for ‘wantonly' ignoring its duty to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from ships, aircraft, and construction and agricultural equipment. According to a PlanetArk report, Brown said the lawsuit, announced at a news conference at the Port of Long Beach and filed in Washington after a 180-day waiting period mandated by the Clean Air Act, was meant to force the EPA into action. The lawsuit follows two similar ones this year by California in conjunction with other states on car and truck emissions and ozone pollution. In April, California, with the support of Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, was one of 18 states to sue the EPA for failing to limit greenhouse gas emissions from new cars and trucks despite a ruling by the US Supreme Court a year earlier that the agency had the power to do so. In May, California joined 12 other states in suing the EPA, claiming it violated the Clean Air Act by not toughening ozone pollution standards enough. The EPA has also come under fire from Democrats in Congress.
Full PlanetArk report
Amid intensifying scrutiny of its failure to act on climate change, the EPA has ordered employees not to talk to internal auditors, Congress or the media, according to a leaked e-mail released last week by green campaigners. The Guardian notes that the issue is whether White House officials, including aides to Vice-President Dick Cheney, improperly influenced the process by pressuring the EPA to reject California's bid to regulate emissions. After an e-mail from the campaign group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (Peer), the EPA told its enforcement officials not to answer questions on the issue - even those from the agency's in-house auditors. Peer questioned whether the e-mail could be an illegal obstruction of the EPA Inspector General (IG), which conducts independent audits of the agency. IG auditors are given broad freedom under US law to examine internal policies at government agencies.
Full report in The Guardian
Four Democratic senators have asked federal prosecutors to investigate the EPA chief for alleged perjury and obstruction of Congress, reports The Guardian. The call for a Justice Department probe of EPA administrator Stephen Johnson - coupled with a plea for his resignation from Democrats - follows a darkening cloud of controversy surrounding the agency. The EPA has refused repeated requests from Congress to explain its December denial of California's request to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, a move that overruled the agency's own career scientists.
Full report in The Guardian |
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