[Dialogue] How the White House Worked to Scuttle California’s Climate Law

[Harry Wainwright]

Published on Tuesday, September 25, 2007 by the San Francisco Chronicle
<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/09/25/MNTUSD603.DT
L&type=printable>

How the White House Worked to Scuttle California’s Climate Law

by Zachary Coile

WASHINGTON - President Bush’s transportation secretary, Mary Peters, with
White House approval, personally directed a lobbying campaign to urge
governors and two dozen House members to block California’s
first-in-the-nation limits on greenhouse gases from cars and trucks,
according to e-mails obtained by Congress.
<http://www.commondreams.org/archive/wp-content/photos/0925_08.jpg>

The e-mails show Peters worked closely with the top opponents in Congress of
California’s emissions law and sought out governors from auto-producing
states, who were seen as likely to oppose the state’s request that the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency allow the new rules to go into effect.

“The administration is trying to stack the deck against California’s
efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions,” House Oversight and
Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, wrote
Monday to the White House. “It suggests that political considerations - not
the merits of the issue - will determine how EPA acts.”

Waxman released the e-mails, which are available on the committee’s Web
site, along with his letter to the White House. The documents show that the
idea to launch the lobbying effort started with Peters.

The secretary “asked that we develop some ideas asap about facilitating a
pushback from governors (esp. D’s)” - Democrats - “and others opposed to
piecemeal regulation of emissions, as per CA’s waiver petition,” Jeff
Shane, the Transportation Department’s undersecretary for policy, wrote to
top staffers on May 22.

It was not an unbiased outreach effort: Peters targeted officials who agreed
with her agency’s opposition to California’s landmark effort to regulate
auto emissions.

“Are we making any headway in identifying sympathetic governors?” Shane
wrote on May 23. “(Peters) asked me about them again this morning.”

The release of the e-mails comes at an awkward time for the White House.
President Bush was scheduled to meet Monday night with global leaders in New
York to convince them he is serious about the United States’ efforts to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He has convened a meeting in Washington
this week to talk about climate change with the world’s 15 biggest emitters
of greenhouse gases.

The Department of Transportation and the White House responded to Waxman’s
letter Monday with statements arguing that they did nothing wrong by urging
lawmakers and governors to oppose California’s efforts to curb emissions.

“Our efforts to inform elected officials about the petition before EPA were
legal, appropriate and consistent with our long-held position on this
issue,” the Transportation Department said. “For over 30 years, the
Department has supported a single, national fuel economy standard as part of
our effort to save fuel, ensure safety, preserve the environment and protect
the economy.”

“With respect to California’s request to be allowed to set its own
standards, there are a wide variety of strongly held views across the
country,” said Kristen Hellmer, a spokeswoman for the White House Council
on Environmental Quality. “Outreach by federal officials to state
government counterparts and members of Congress on issues of major national
policy is an appropriate and routine component of policy development.”

But California officials, including one of Republican Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger’s top environmental aides, said the e-mails suggest the Bush
administration is working behind the scenes to deny California’s waiver.
The EPA is expected to make its decision by December.

“We’re deeply disappointed to hear of confirmed reports of back-room
maneuvering to deny our request,” said Mary Nichols, who chairs the state’
s Air Resources Board. “We will move ahead with our lawsuit if the EPA
fails to act in the next few weeks.”

California has taken the initial steps to sue the federal government if it
turns down the state’s request for a waiver under the federal Clean Air Act
that would approve California’s plan to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

The e-mails paint a picture of the administration working closely with
Michigan’s powerful congressional delegation, which strongly opposes
California’s new rules. U.S. automakers fear a huge drop in sales if
California and 12 other states implement the new rules - which would cut
emissions by 30 percent by 2016.

In one e-mail, Peters asks if she needs to call Rep. Joe Knollenberg,
R-Mich., who was rallying opposition in Congress to California’s proposal.

“Do I need to touch base with Knollenberg to coordinate our efforts?” she
wrote in a June 7 e-mail to her deputy chief of staff, Simon Gros.

“His staff is also going to ping other members of the automotive caucus for
us,” Gros replied. “My staff this morning called just about every
auto-friendly member of this issue.”

Gros, in an interview with House investigators, said Peters personally
called two to four governors to urge them to lobby the EPA. The
Transportation Department would not identify the governors, but one cited in
the e-mails was Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, a Democrat.

The documents also reveal that Peters sought - and received - approval for
her effort from the White House. Her executive assistant, Sandy Snyder,
reported in a May 25 e-mail that the White House Council on Environmental
Quality’s chief of staff, Marty Hall, approved the idea.

Hall was “OK with (Peters) making calls,” Snyder wrote.

Snyder added that Hall had spoken the day before with EPA Administrator
Stephen Johnson - suggesting he may have known of the effort to lobby his
agency. Johnson, at a Senate hearing in July, said he’d talked with Peters
only about extending the comment period for the waiver request.

Waxman has suggested the actions could violate the Anti-Lobbying Act, which
restricts the ability of federal employees or agencies to lobby. The law
prohibits “grassroots lobbying” - efforts to get members of the public to
lobby Congress.

The Transportation Department has said it did not engage in grassroots
lobbying. But Thomas Susman, an attorney at Ropes & Gray in Washington and
co-author of “The Lobbying Manual,” said contacting governors - who are
called “grasstops,” in lobbying parlance - is usually considered
grassroots lobbying.

“In my experience, there is no distinction in the statute or any
interpretations between governors and the public,” he said.

But Peters could have a legal out: The president, vice president and Cabinet
members can’t be barred from speaking out or instigating grassroots actions
on issues of public concern, Susman said.

The law is enforced if a “substantial” amount of money - $50,000 - is
spent on lobbying, and it’s unlikely the Justice Department would go after
members of the administration, he said.

Waxman said the debate over the legality of the actions misses the point.
Peters could have submitted comments to the EPA, stating her views, he said.

“Instead … she apparently sought and received White House approval to use
taxpayer funds to mount a lobbying campaign designed to inject political
considerations into the decision,” Waxman said.

Online resources
Find the e-mails released by Rep. Henry Waxman

links.sfgate.com/ZXF

Status of law

What California wants: A waiver from federal law that would allow the state
to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks.

Who decides: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

When: A decision is expected by December.

To comment: If you want to weigh in on the lobbying effort against
California’s greenhouse gas emissions law, call the U.S. Department of
Transportation at (202) 366-4000 or e-mail dot.comments at dot.gov. Or call the
White House’s comment line at (202) 456-1111 or e-mail comments at whitehouse.
gov.

Efforts to block California’s climate rules

E-mails from top Transportation Department officials show that Secretary
Mary Peters directed an effort to block California’s first-in-the-nation
regulations limiting greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks. Here are
excerpts. Note: Secretary Peters is often referred to as “S1″ in the
e-mails:

“S1 asked that we develop some ideas asap about facilitating a pushback
from governors (esp. D’s) and others opposed to piecemeal regulation of
emissions, as per CA’s waiver petition. She has heard that such objections
could have an important effect on the way Congress looks at the issue.”

- e-mail from Jeff Shane, undersecretary of transportation for policy, to
top staffers on May 22

“Marty Hall … OK with S1 making calls, spoke with (EPA Administrator)
Steve Johnson yesterday.”

- e-mail from Sandy Snyder, executive assistant to Peters after getting
approval from Marty Hall, chief of staff at the White House Council on
Environmental Quality, May 25

“Tyler/Jenny mentioned yesterday that they thought the WH had approved
calls to the Gov’s on the issue I had discussed with Administrator Johnson.
If so, I should get those worked in today or tomorrow.”

- e-mail from Peters to her chief of staff, Robert Johnson, May 31

“Mary - I spoke with Tyler and Husein after your call with Gov. Granholm
today. They said that you’d like to call some members of the MI delegation
on the waiver issue.”

- e-mail to Peters from Simon Gros, her deputy chief of staff, referencing a
conversation with Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm and potential calls to
Michigan lawmakers, June 4

“S1 wanted me to touch base with you asap regarding the California Clean
Air Act Waiver request. She would like us to contact Members (of
Congress).”

- e-mail from Katherine Stusrud, policy assistant to Peters, to Gros, June 7

“Do I need to touch base with Knollenberg to coordinate our efforts?”

- e-mail from Peters to Gros, June 7, 2007, referring to Rep. Joe
Knollenberg, R-Mich., who was rallying House members to oppose California’s
rules

“If you’d like but he is very much on point. His staff is also going to
ping other members of the automotive caucus for us. My staff this morning
called just about every auto-friendly member of this issue.”

- e-mail reply from Gros to Peters, June 7

“Simon - we are a bit concerned about the conversation on this task …
appears to sound more like lobbying. So we want to be careful on what
exactly we say. … I have already made a bunch of calls … looking back, I
may have said more that I should have.”

- e-mail from Heidah Shahmoradi, special assistant for governmental affairs
at the DOT, to Gros, June 7

Source: House Oversight and Government Reform Committee

(c) 2007 San Francisco Chronicle

Article printed from www.CommonDreams.org

URL to article: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/25/4099/



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