Another Question for Stephen Johnson (and Dick Cheney)

Amanda Terkel of ThinkProgress writes today that Vice President Dick Cheney has, over the course of 2007, been expanding his office's (OVP) involvement in meetings to formulate key environmental regulations. OMB Watch is responsible for the full analysis, which highlights the interest that Cheney's office has taken in devising GHG emissions regulations to fulfill the Supreme Court's Mass v. EPA mandate:

On Oct. 25, OMB held a meeting with members of the Climate Policy Group, a coalition of public power utilities. A representative from the Office of the Vice President (OVP), as well as officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Departments of Agriculture, Energy and Transportation, attended. The coalition submitted material regarding greenhouse gas reduction policy. Although the nature of the meeting is not disclosed on the OMB website, attendees likely discussed the rulemaking EPA is preparing to initiate to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Given that this process has involved both EPA and the Department of Transportation-- and we know that the latter has, along with the White House, sought to lobby EPA against California's waiver application-- it seems logical to wonder whether that topic came up at all...

(Note: as ThinkProgress reports, and we've pointed out in the past, Cheney's office played a key role in the administration's decision to renege on a campaign promise to regulate CO2 and its subsequent-- unsuccessful-- legal strategy of claiming EPA lacked the authority to do so).

Comments

[Bill Wolfe]

I hate to disagree with the good folks at OMB Watch, but the October 25 meeting had nothing to do with California car.

Contrary to claims, the subject matter of the 10/25 meeting is posted on the OMB website - it involved an industry GHG cap and trade proposal titled: "August 2007 Climate Policy Group -Climate Policy Development Paper A Three-PhasedLegislative Approach Using a GHG Control Technology"

There's plent of stuff to criticize the Bushies for - no need to mislead on this one.