EPA Administrator Disputes Accusation That Agency Rolled Back Safeguards

Date: February 6, 2007

Source: News Room

Having to answer now before a democratically controlled congress, EPA administrator Stephen Johnson faced an unsympathetic audience. He and is agency stand accused of having rolled back environmental safeguards. A recently released GAO study concludes that the EPA did not adhere to its own rule-making in allowing changes to toxic chemicals reporting. Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer of Calif., who now chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said that the "EPA has gone too long without meaningful oversight," contending that the changes "benefit polluters' bottom line and they hurt our communities." Several Republicans on the panel defended Johnson, praising him for streamlining agency regulations.

For more information, visit: www.epa.gov.

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