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An Eroding Mission at EPA
The Bush administration has weakened the agency charged with safeguarding health and the environment.
He canceled CHEERS - though not other human testing programs - and the senators removed the hold on his confirmation.
Asked if he killed CHEERS because of the Senate hold - if he made a political decision instead of a scientific one - Johnson replied, "That is an unfortunate characterization."
The timing, he said, was just a coincidence.
Boxer, when told of Johnson's recollection of events, fumed:
"He's lying."
Disappointed
Leaders of national environmental groups never expected a Bush-run EPA to be eco-friendly, but several welcomed Johnson's appointment.
They figured that as a career scientist who had worked at EPA for a quarter-century, he would act reasonably.
"I made a mistake," said Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope. "What surprises me is that the Bush second term is worse than the first."
Ken Cook, who leads the Environmental Working Group, which advocates for stronger pesticide regulation, said he also feels betrayed.
"The day he was named administrator, Steve called to tell me he was excited and looking forward to working with me," said Cook, who was quoted in newspapers praising Johnson's appointment.
"That's the last time we ever spoke," Cook said. "It proved impossible for me to get a meeting with him."
Jeff Ruch, who runs the advocacy group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said EPA staff hoped that Johnson, a career employee following a string of politicians, would usher in a new era of candor and respect.
"That just didn't happen," Ruch said, "If anything, he appeared less able to protect the agency from political interference."
Frustrated, several environmental groups began to simply sidestep EPA. They said they found corporate executives more receptive.
"After banging our heads into walls repeatedly," said Jacqueline Savitz of the advocacy group Oceana, "we figured out that we had a better chance of convincing private corporations to do the right thing than we did convincing EPA."
When, for example, the EPA refused to regulate waste-water pollution from cruise ships, Oceana and other environmental groups approached Royal Caribbean Cruises directly. To date, Royal Caribbean has spent more than $100 million to retrofit its fleet, said senior executive Jamie Sweeting.
"We decided to look at this from a science perspective - what the marine biologists told us - rather than from a political perspective," he said. "In the end, we wanted to get out ahead of the problem and do the right thing."
Cars, Congress and the FBI
