What do you do when you help a large corporation, like Dow Chemical, get out of having to clean up your mess? Well if you are a “public” aka. (corporate) servant like Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson, you just refuse to testify to congress on why you help corporations dodge to bullet of responsibility.
What do you give as your excuse? You just say that your back hurts and hand the judge your doctors excuse. Just make sure that the note is not from Dr. Strangelove. :-0
From The Washington Post:
Speaking of administrator Johnson, he was scheduled to appear at a hearing tomorrow of Rep. Henry Waxman’s House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, but that has been postponed because Johnson’s got some back problems.
No, it was not from carrying heavy golf bags or luggage on his important two-week tour of Australia last month. He had plenty of staff help for that.
EPA officials say Johnson had a “recurrence of ongoing back issues stemming from a car accident years ago.” Something like this happened another time he was to appear for a ritual pummeling — which is what happens when any administration official appears before Waxman (D-Calif.). No new date for a hearing has been set.
Meanwhile, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), whom Johnson stiffed to go to Australia, is still lying in wait for him if he survives Waxman.
From Think Progress:
EPA’s Johnson Claims ‘Ongoing Back Issues’ Prevent Him From Testifying Before Congress
As each day brings new scandals involving the Environmental Protection Agency to light, the pressure for EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson to respond is growing. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA)’s Oversight and Government Reform Committee had scheduled a hearing for tomorrow with Johnson to testify on White House interference with ozone standards.
Today, Al Kamen reports that the hearing has been postponed because Johnson refused to appear:
EPA officials say Johnson had a “recurrence of ongoing back issues stemming from a car accident years ago.”
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) is conducting a hearing right now into the politicization of EPA scientific decisions (live webcast). Administrator Johnson declined the invitation to appear.
The Wonk Room wishes Administrator Johnson well and hopes that his recurring back pain subsides. Once he recovers, he should be ready to testify on these and other ongoing scandals involving his agency:
| EPA SCANDAL | CURRENT STATUS |
|---|---|
| The denial of the California waiver petition. | |
| Failure to obey Supreme Court mandate to make a global warming pollution endangerment finding. |
|
| White House interference in ozone standards. | |
| Mary Gade firing. |
|
| Politicization of the EPA. |
|
UPDATE: Council on Foreign Relations fellow and former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson argues today in the Washington Post:
There are few things in American politics more irrationally ideological, more fanatically faith-based, than the accusation that Republicans are conducting a “war on science.”
UPDATE II: The Sacramento Bee reports that the EPA will probably not regulate toxic rocket fuel contamination of water:
In a Senate hearing Tuesday, EPA assistant water chief Benjamin Grumbles did not dispute studies showing that perchlorate increases risks of brain damage in fetuses and infants and thyroid disorders in adults.
But, Grumbles said, there’s a “distinct possibility” the environmental agency won’t take action because they don’t know whether regulation would meaningfully reduce those risks.
