The Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA to friends, relatives, and close neighbors, is being taken to task for caving in to pressure from the White House when it denied California’s effort to set the strictest auto emission standards in the nation.  Of course, I may have had some problems with the EPA in the past, but this time, we have, you know, testimony and subpoenaed documents and all sorts of fun things.  From the San Francisco Chronicle:

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, said the new details - revealed in sworn testimony from top EPA officials - showed that the White House “played a decisive role in the rejection of the California motor vehicle standards” in December.

A spokesman for the EPA said [EPA Administrator] Johnson stands by his decision and called the report “distraction-oriented political tactics.”

Ah yes, those “distraction-oriented political tactics” those Democrats love use when they have cold hard facts in their hands.  Hey, isn’t there a war going on?  Huh?  What’s that?  I have an extra $600 in my bank account?  Awesome!  What were we talking about again? 

Of course, the EPA may have a point about Democrats simply flapping their gums about the White House pressuring the EPA to alter policy.  Wait, what’s that, Chronicle?

The White House has told Waxman’s committee it has 32 documents that detail phone calls and meetings between senior White House and EPA officials but will not release them, citing executive privilege.

Hmm.

I’m really not sure how one can act on things like this anymore.  Sure, and read the rest of the article, or I suppose  and contact Governor Schwarzenegger and ask that he continue fighting for those tougher emission standards.  And while you’re doing that, let him know you liked Jingle All the Way.  You did like Jingle All the Way, didn’t you?