TPM Muckraker's Paul Kiel just put up a great featured article about the EPA's continuing failure to act on the Supreme Court's Massachusetts v. EPA remand, nearly a year after the landmark ruling was handed down.
Kiel provides video and additional details from the Tuesday exchange with Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) that we've previously blogged about. Among the lowlights highlights are Johnson's confused citing of Justice Scalia, who actually dissented in the case. Kiel also points out that EPA is actually backtracking a bit (and citing red-herring arguments) by delaying action indefinitely and not assigning any staff members to the issue:
There's actually evidence that Johnson has gone backwards since last year. Written answers to questions from Sen. Feinstein indicated that "three to four staff members" had worked on the issue last year. Now, apparently, no one (well, besides Johnson) is. The only excuse Johnson has mustered is that the energy bill the president signed into law last year has thrown his analysis into confusion. The environmental groups dismiss that argument out of hand, saying the bill changed unrelated language in the Clean Air Act.
Instead, they say, Johnson is stalling to protect the administration and the auto industry. "The longer they can stave off regulation, the better it is for them," Josh Dorner of the Sierra Club told me.
"I think it’s stunning," he said. "After seven years after being constantly outraged by any number of things, to just ignore the Supreme Court, that's just on a whole other level to me."
At what point is it appropriate to ask the courts to find Johnson in criminal contempt of court?
Posted by: Carl C. Christensen | March 05, 2008 at 08:39 PM