Select Committee Reaches Agreement with White House on EPA Documents

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Select Committee, 202-225-4081

Select Committee Reaches Agreement with White House on EPA Documents

WASHINGTON (June 9, 2008) – The Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming has reached an agreement with the White House on access to documents pertaining to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decisions on two global warming regulatory issues.

Under the agreement, the EPA will allow the Select Committee access to the documents in a timely fashion, but to not interfere with the current regulatory deliberations currently underway within the administration. The Select Committee will not withdraw the subpoena still outstanding against EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson.

“The agreement will allow Congress the right to conduct oversight on important executive decisions,” said Chairman Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.). “Our goal all along was to acquire access to these global warming documents, and the committee has succeeded in that effort in a bi-partisan way.”

The committee has been pursuing two sets of documents, both easily accessed by the agency. The documents relate to EPA’s decisions on global warming emissions regulations for vehicles, and on the agency’s ruling on the risks of heat-trapping pollution to public health or welfare.

Starting in January, Chairman Markey requested the documents from Administrator Johnson, and has offered several proposals since then to accommodate the agency’s wishes to keep the documents private, while still recognizing Congress’ right to the documents.

A timeline of the exchanges between Chairman Markey and the administration is available on the Select Committee website HERE.

# # #

Return to Press Releases »

del.icio.us   Digg this   Reddit   Stumbleupon  

 Print This Page