Los Angeles, CA - United States Senator Barbara Boxer (Democrat, California), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, today excoriated the Bush Administration's U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen L. Johnson for not showing up at field briefing to explain why he refused California's request to take strong steps to combat global warming. Senator Boxer convened the briefing in Los Angeles to set the record straight about the California waiver decision.
An empty chair at the briefing symbolized the absence of any representative of the EPA, and an empty box marked "EPA Documents" symbolized that he has failed to submit any of the documents that have been requested by the Environment and Public Works Committee relating to his decision.
(rtsp://avs.senate.gov/epw011008.rm?start=00:00).
Attached please find Senator Boxer's opening statement, as well as prepared testimony from today's witnesses.
WITNESSES:
* Edmund G. Brown Jr., Attorney General of California
* Mary Nichols, Chairman of the California Air Resources Board
* Fran Pavley, Natural Resources Defense Council, Senior Climate Advisor (original author of California's Pavley Clean Car Act)
* Carl Pope, Sierra Club, Executive Director
**Update: Congresswoman Hilda Solis (D-CA) and the Mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, will also make statements**
