stephen johnson

More than three years after California attempted to enact stricter auto emissions standards, only to see them rejected by the Environmental Protection Agency under the Bush administration, new EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson pledged this morning to reconsider the state’s request.
Under the Clean Air Act, California must receive a waiver from the EPA in order to [...]

Sen. Barbara Boxer, who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, has never been much a fan of Stephen Johnson, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator with a long record of putting Bush administration orthodoxy above the environment he’s charged to protect. But the California Democrat was particularly rankled after Johnson ruled last week that [...]

In a last-minute genuflection to the mining industry, the Bush administration yesterday finalized its contentious plan to lift restrictions on mine-debris disposal, allowing companies to fill valleys and streams with the waste from their operations.
The change is of particular threat to Appalachia, where coal miners have adopted the practice of blasting the tops off of [...]