Smoke and Mirrors. The Subversion of the EPA

The Bush administration has weakened the agency charged with safeguarding health and the environment.

WASHINGTON - On Dec. 5, 2007, EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson prepared to send the White House an extraordinary document. It declared that climate change imperiled the public welfare - a decision that would trigger the nation's first mandatory global-warming regulations.

EPA's court follies sow doubt, delay

In a dozen cases since 2001, federal judges in Washington have used increasingly caustic language to throw out EPA regulations, chastising the Bush administration for illegally changing U.S. environmental rules.

Green Club an EPA charade

The EPA touts the perk-filled program, but has recruited some firms with dismal environmental records.

CHARLESTON, Tenn. - In January 2005, residents near the chlorine plant here discovered that it was the biggest mercury emitter in the state. Environmentalists warned them against eating fish from their beloved Hiwassee River.

Politics choke clean-air efforts

Scientists say the EPA chief bowed to pressure from the White House, hampering pollution-control efforts.

Leading environmental scientists have denounced EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson for substituting politics for science on key pollution issues - from not regulating greenhouse gases blamed for global warming to delaying the assessment of toxic chemicals. But it was in a succession of decisions on air quality that Johnson's uneven application of science had perhaps the most severe impacts on human health.