In a the news we see that the "White House officials refused to open e-mail from the Environmental Protection Agency, congressional staff said Monday."
What we do not hear is that they want "control without giving public notice and seeking public comment".
And that the EPA e-mail was not open because that is NOT the procedure for submitting regulations.
The e-mailed documents were sent to the White House Office of Management and Budget in December, staff on the House Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming said.
This was part of the environment agency's response to a landmark 2007 Supreme Court ruling that for the first time found that greenhouse gases can be regulated as a pollutant under the US Clean Air Act.
An administration official said EPA cannot conclude that greenhouse gases are pollutants that must be controlled without giving public notice and seeking public comment. Beyond that, the official said, EPA's "informal e-mail" did not follow long-standing procedures for submitting regulations.
Three months after the EPA's e-mailed documents were rebuffed by the White House, the agency's chief, Stephen Johnson, offered an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the subject of greenhouse pollution. This is an early and tentative step in the policy process that will likely push any action into the next US presidential administration.
