No contrition for EPA chief

You’ve got to give U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson some credit for sticking to his guns. The chief environmental regulator showed backbone a few weeks back when snarling Senate Democrats excoriated his decision to deny California’s waiver that would have allowed the state to impose stricter tailpipe-emissions reductions. He defended his decision despite mounting evidence uncovered during an investigation by Sen. Barbara Boxer’s office that he ignored his agency’s own recommendations, which suggested that California did indeed demonstrate “compelling and extraordinary conditions” for pre-empting federal standards and that the EPA would likely lose a lawsuit if it denied the waiver. Not even a sharply worded letter from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and 13 other governors could shake his confidence. Will this man ever break? Where’s Don Rumsfeld when you need him?