Stonewall Johnson’s Final Stand

For months Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson has been dodging Congress. It looks like he’ll be up to more of the same today.

Barbara Boxer,’s (D-Calif.) Senate environmental committee requested Johnson testify about the EPA’s continued failure to regulate global warming-causing greenhouse gases. Johnson has said ‘no, thanks’ and so did EPA Deputy Administrator Marcus Peacock.

The Washington Post’s Al Kamen reports in his “In the Loop” column today that Peacock was meeting with heads of state environmental agencies at Branson, Missouri. According to his schedule, he spent yesterday evening taking a cruise on the Showboat Branson Belle.

Johnson, meanwhile, briefly stopped in Branson, though its unlikely he joined Peacock on the cruise. Today he’s at a regional meeting in Philadelphia.

Boxer and other Senators long ago called on Johnson to resign. The EPA head has also asserted a presidential claim of executive privilege in not turning over Clean Air documents to the House oversight committee. It’s easy (and fun!) to make light of Johnson’s stonewalling. But it looks like he’s about to cross the finish line of the Bush administration without ever having to really describe EPA policymaking.