The House government oversight committee released a report yesterday saying EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson only decided to deny California a waiver request to regulate carbon emissions after speaking with the White House. According to sworn testimony by EPA official Jason Burnett, Johnson was inclined to allow California to regulate automobile greenhouse gas emission as it saw fit. But something changed—Burnett didn’t tell the committee what—after Johnson spoke with the White House.

There are now two specific cases of the White House overruling the EPA’s scientific findings, the other being the new ozone standard. As the Washington Post’s Juliet Eilperin reports, denying the waiver was big: 18 states, or 45 percent of the nation’s auto market, had planned to follow California’s regulatory lead.

Johnson will have a chance to defend himself before the oversight committee today.  Read Eilperin here.  MB

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