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Stephen L. Johnson


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Third-Party Descriptions

July 2008: 'And Sen. Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat who has long battled with the agency's administrator, Stephen Johnson, said the instructions showed that Johnson is "turning the EPA into a secretive, dangerous ally of polluters, instead of a leader in the effort to protect the health and safety of the American people."'

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/28/epa.gag.order/index.html

July 2008: "Mr. Johnson’s comments appeared as a preface to a report by the E.P.A. staff sketching out how the emission of heat-trapping gases, particularly by vehicles, might be handled under the Clean Air Act. The report was intended to address a Supreme Court directive that the agency decide whether such gases threaten people’s health or welfare. But it also reflects the deep disapproval of controls on such gases by the White House and agencies like the Transportation, Agriculture and Commerce Departments. In effect, Mr. Johnson was simultaneously publishing the policy analysis of his scientific and legal experts and repudiating its conclusions."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/12/washington/12enviro.html

July 2008: 'In the former camp, at least initially, was EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson, a career official who previously oversaw pesticide regulations, and much of the agency's senior ranks. After the court ruling, in Massachusetts et al. v. Environmental Protection Agency et al.,"people were bouncing back and forth into each other's offices, saying, 'Can you believe this? Look at this decision; look at the language; this is so strong,' " recalled one agency official, who like the others asked not to be identified for fear of retribution. "People thought, 'We are going to move forward and do the right thing.' "'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/10/AR2008071003087.html

June 2007: Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen L. Johnson said yesterday that current limits on ozone air pollution do not adequately protect public health as he released a proposed regulation to lower the limit by as much as 20 percent in coming decades. The proposal came under immediate attack by business and industry groups.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/21/AR2007062100845.html

December 2005: The Environmental Protection Agency's Oct. 27 analysis of its plan -- along with those of Sens. Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.) and James M. Jeffords (I-Vt.) -- exaggerated the costs and underestimated the benefits of imposing more stringent pollution curbs, the independent, nonpartisan congressional researchers wrote in a Nov. 23 report. The EPA issued its analysis -- which Carper had demanded this spring, threatening to hold up the nomination of EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson -- in part to revive its proposal, which is stalled in the Senate.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/02/AR2005120201767.html

April 2005: Third, confirmation politics for judges and bureaucrats are fundamentally different. Appointees bound for the bureaucracy usually have things to offer in exchange for senators' votes. California Democrat Barbara Boxer has agreed to vote to confirm Stephen Johnson as head of the Environmental Protection Agency after he said he would cancel a controversial pesticide program. Now Delaware Democrat Thomas Carper has held up Johnson's confirmation until he releases a cost-benefit analysis of competing clean air initiatives. With concessions to grant, future bureaucrats can defuse pockets of Senate opposition. Future judges have no such carrots to give out.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11131-2005Apr23.html

October 2005: '"This is an historic agreement that commits GE to begin dredging the Hudson River," said EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson earlier this month in a statement. "This is an important milestone in this complex environmental project."'

Relationships

RoleNameTypeLast Updated
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Organization Oct 20, 2005

Articles and Resources

Date Fairness.com Resource Read it at:
Sep 12, 2009 Clean Water Laws Are Neglected, at a Cost in Suffering (Toxic Waters)

QUOTE: in recent years, violations of the Clean Water Act have risen steadily across the nation...

 New York Times
Jul 28, 2008 EPA e-mail to workers: Don't answer inspector's questions

QUOTE: The Environmental Protection Agency advised employees last month not to answer questions from journalists, the Government Accountability Office or the agency's inspector general, according to an EPA e-mail made public Monday..."The order reinforces a growing bunker mentality within an EPA that is the subject of a growing number of probes into political interference with agency operations,"

 CNN (Cable News Network)
Jul 12, 2008 Decisions Shut Door on Bush Clean-Air Steps

QUOTE: In the morning, a federal appeals court struck down the cornerstone of the administration’s strategy to control industrial air pollution by agreeing with arguments by the utility industry that the E.P.A. had exceeded its authority when it established the Clean Air Interstate Rule in 2005. The court, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, said the rule, which set new requirements for major pollutants, had “fatal flaws.”

 New York Times
Jul 11, 2008 EPA Won't Act on Emissions This Year: Instead of New Rules, More Comment Sought (Green)

QUOTE: The Supreme Court, in a decision 15 months ago that startled the government, ordered the EPA to decide whether human health and welfare are being harmed by greenhouse gas pollution from cars, power plants and other sources, or to provide a good explanation for not doing so. But the administration has opted to postpone action instead, according to interviews and documents obtained by The Washington Post.

 Washington Post
Jun 30, 2008 Pentagon Fights EPA On Pollution Cleanup

QUOTE: The Defense Department, the nation's biggest polluter, is resisting orders from the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up Fort Meade and two other military bases where the EPA says dumped chemicals pose "imminent and substantial" dangers to public health and the environment.

 Washington Post
Jun 22, 2007 EPA Chief Proposes Tougher Ground-Level Pollution Standards for Ozone

QUOTE: Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen L. Johnson said yesterday that current limits on ozone air pollution do not adequately protect public health as he released a proposed regulation to lower the limit by as much as 20 percent in coming decades. The proposal came under immediate attack by business and industry groups.

 Washington Post
May 23, 2007 Battle Heats Up Over Emissions: States Ask EPA for Right to Impose Stricter Standards

QUOTE: Pressure mounted on the Bush administration yesterday to allow states to impose their own regulations on vehicle emissions. At a hearing yesterday, officials from California and other states urged the Environmental Protection Agency to grant California a waiver from federal controls so it could apply its stringent emissions standards.

 Washington Post
Aug 02, 2006 Unions Say E.P.A. Bends to Political Pressure

QUOTE: Unions representing thousands of staff scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency say the agency is bending to political pressure and ignoring sound science in allowing a group of toxic chemicals to be used in agricultural pesticides.

 New York Times
Dec 21, 2005 Proposed Standards for Air Quality Criticized

QUOTE: The Bush administration proposed a modest tightening of federal air-quality standards yesterday for the first time in eight years, drawing protests from both public health and industry officials....fell short of what the EPA's scientific advisory board proposed earlier this year.

 Washington Post
Dec 03, 2005 Report Accuses EPA of Slanting Analysis: Hill Researchers Say Agency Fixed Pollution Study to Favor Bush's 'Clear Skies'

QUOTE: The Bush administration skewed its analysis of pending legislation on air pollution to favor its bill over two competing proposals...The Environmental Protection Agency's Oct. 27 analysis of its plan -- along with those of Sens. Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.) and James M. Jeffords (I-Vt.) -- exaggerated the costs and underestimated the benefits of imposing more stringent pollution curbs, the independent, nonpartisan congressional researchers wrote...

 Washington Post
Nov 19, 2005 Mileage Numbers To Reflect Reality: EPA to Update Test Procedure

QUOTE: The Environmental Protection Agency will replace its testing procedures for fuel-economy estimates with a system that better reflects how motorists drive today. The planned changes follow complaints from consumers who have been paying more attention to the accuracy of the estimates as gas prices have spiked.

 Washington Post
Oct 20, 2005 Corporations pitch in to pay for cleanups: But hundreds of other hazardous waste sites receive little attention because of funding shortfalls.

QUOTE: Superfund sites like the GE-Hudson River are part of an apparent trend in which more polluters are stepping forward to pay for such cleanups, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports.

 Christian Science Monitor
Apr 24, 2005 A Gallery of Might-Have-Beens: There's More Than One Way to Fail the Senate Confirmation Test

QUOTE: There are only two factors that can stop a presidential nominee for the executive branch -- and both may apply to Bolton...Like Guinier, Bolton has drawn fire not for who he is but for what he actually thinks. The second is a matter of ethical or legal lapses.

 Washington Post