Newswire:

Meet Stephen Johnson, EPA’s Alberto Gonzales

He oversees a department that makes America great, but he’s surrendered it to a radical conservative agenda, rampant politicization, and corporate cronies.

Alberto Gonzales at the Justice Department? Nope, Stephen Johnson, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. [Wonk Room]

Yesterday, we told you about the rampant political pressure that EPA scientists feel under Johnson. [MicCheck]

But his shoddy record doesn’t stop there. Here are some more examples of poor judgment and kow-towing to the very industries he’s supposed to be regulating:

• Disregarded the Supreme Court on Global Warming: When America’s highest court told the EPA that greenhouses gases were a pollutant and had to be regulated under the clean Air Act, Stephen Johnson and President Bush… just ignored them. [Wonk Room]

• Overruled smog standards: When independent EPA scientists “tried to set a lower seasonal limit on ozone to protect wildlife, parks and farmland,” President Bush ordered the EPA to raise the limits, and Stephen Johnson went right along with it. [Washington Post]

• Ignored integrity standards: Johnson refused “to enforce the agency’s ‘Principles of Scientific Integrity’ involving fluoride drinking water standards, organophosphate pesticide registration, and control of mercury emissions from power plants.” [Wonk Room]

• Closed libraries: Johnson oversaw “The shuttering of EPA’s network of technical libraries without waiting for Congressional approval in 2006 — to be reopened only with documents that undergo a political review.” [Wonk Room]

What do all these things have in common? “Behind all these actions is service to corporate polluters above public health.”

Our pals at the Wonk Room have much much more: [Wonk Room]

We don’t need another Gonzo.

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