Stephen Johnson

(Newser) - Get ready for a bruising showdown over the consumer protection agency the Democrats are trying to create: GOP senators are pledging to kill a standalone body, which is critical to the Dems' plan. A strong, independent CFPA is anathema, says Utah Republican Robert Bennett: "Can you say EPA?" Bennett...

(Newser) - In what some officials fear is a sign of secrecy and political meddling, an email to Environmental Protection Agency staff asked that they not answer questions from journalists, the Government Accountability Office, or its own inspector general, CNN reports. In the email, which an environmental workers’ group called a “...

(Newser) - Aides to Vice President Dick Cheney censored congressional testimony on climate change by a top government official, a former official at the Environmental Protection Agency charges. Jason Burnett claims Cheney’s office, fearing testimony would lead to greater regulation of greenhouse gases, excised six pages of text regarding the health...

(Newser) - The EPA chief—under heavy pressure from the auto industry—rejected his own staff's advice in denying California’s request to set its own fuel economy standards, the Los Angeles Times reports. Stephen Johnson told the state that it’s request was unnecessary in the wake of the new energy...