Sludge Watch ==> Calif Senator Boxer Rips EPA Chief for Bowing to Industry

[Maureen Reilly]

Boxer rips EPA chief as bowing to industry
Official says policies speed up benefits to the environment
- Zachary Coile, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Wednesday, February 7, 2007



(02-07) 04:00 PST Washington -- California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer 
ripped the Environmental Protection Agency's top official Tuesday for rules 
changes that could limit the input of scientific advisers into agency 
decisions and reduce public access to information about toxic substances in 
communities.

Boxer, using her clout at her second hearing as the new chairwoman of the 
Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, accused EPA Administrator 
Stephen Johnson of bending to the wishes of industry rather than protecting 
public health.

"I want to send a clear signal to EPA and to this administration: We are 
watching," she said. "No longer will EPA rollbacks quietly escape scrutiny."

Johnson defended the Bush administration's record on the environment, saying 
his agency had pursued policies aimed at cutting the costs of regulation and 
giving companies incentives to reduce their pollution.

"These decisions and actions all accelerate the pace of environmental 
protection," Johnson said. "They all deliver environmental results."

Boxer devoted the hearing to shedding light on half a dozen controversial 
decisions made by the EPA late last year, which she said received little 
scrutiny from the formerly Republican-led Congress. Among them:

-- The decision to shut down or cut access to seven EPA libraries across the 
country. The libraries are used by scientists, agency employees and citizens 
looking for information about public health and environmental hazards in 
their neighborhoods.

-- The agency in December eased the rules on industry for the reporting of 
their discharge of toxic chemicals. Previously, companies that released 500 
pounds of chemicals were required to file a detailed report. Under the new 
rule, firms would file detailed accounts only after releasing 2,000 pounds 
of chemicals.

-- The EPA in December proposed changing its decades-old policy that asked 
scientific advisory boards to study and develop new air quality standards 
before the agency would announce them. The move to lessen the influence of 
the advisory boards would strengthen the hand of the agency's political 
appointees in setting policy.

Democratic senators on the committee complained that the agency's decisions 
seemed designed to satisfy the requests of key industry groups.

The Battery Council International, a trade group of battery manufacturers 
and lead smelters, sent a letter to the EPA in July urging it to revoke the 
ambient air quality standard for lead -- which the agency said in December 
it is considering. The trade group also asked the EPA to expedite the 
decision by changing how the agency and scientists review its proposals.

Boxer warned that "if the standard is revoked, there is no assurance that 
lead will be monitored in air across the country. Polluters could emit 
dangerous levels of lead without being detected."

Johnson insisted he is committed to reducing emissions of lead, which pose 
health risks to humans, especially children, even at low levels.

In written testimony, he noted that lead concentrations in the air had 
fallen by 95 percent since leaded gasoline was banned but said it was too 
early to say whether the lead standard would be revoked.

Boxer and Johnson got into a testy exchange over the EPA's closure of its 
libraries.

Johnson called it an effort to modernize the libraries now that many people 
are accessing agency data and scientific reports on the Internet. He said 
the reports kept in the libraries either would be made available online or 
would be donated to other libraries.

But Boxer read e-mails from EPA librarians that detailed the destruction of 
agency reports and other documents.

"There's something about Americans, they don't like things being destroyed 
-- libraries, books, movies, things like that," Boxer said. "The image of it 
is discomforting."

"We have not been disposing of documents," insisted Johnson, who noted that 
the agency halted plans to close more libraries because of the outcry.

But Johnson received a little help from Republicans on the committee. Sen. 
James Inhofe, R-Okla., the panel's ranking Republican, accused critics of 
the EPA's library plan of being "hysterical" and motivated by the desire to 
save a few union jobs.

Inhofe asked Johnson if he knew that the EPA's libraries held titles 
including "Memoirs of a Geisha," "Fat Chicks Rule!: How to Survive in a 
Thin-Centric World," and the Dr. Seuss book, "The Lorax." Johnson smiled as 
each title was read, saying he was aware the EPA had those books.

Boxer, annoyed by the scripted exchange with Inhofe, commented 
sarcastically: "I'm amazed that the administrator of the Environmental 
Protection Agency would know what books are in the library. ... You're a 
multitasker, that's for sure."

It's not the first time Boxer and Johnson have clashed. The California 
Democrat held up Johnson's nomination to head the EPA until the agency 
dropped a program that paid parents to monitor the health effects of 
pesticides on their children.

Boxer warned Johnson that he should expect to spend more time in her hearing 
room explaining his agency's decisions.

"It's over in terms of your not having to come before the committees of 
Congress to respond to them," she said. "This is just the start."

E-mail Zachary Coile at zcoile at sfchronicle.com.

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