Washington, DC - U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, today made the following remarks in response to a letter from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reporting that EPA will fail to meet a January 7 deadline for providing the EPW Committee with documents relating to EPA's denial of California's request for a waiver to control global warming pollution from motor vehicles.

Senator Boxer said: "First, EPA Administrator Johnson refused to participate in our field briefing to explain to the people why he turned down the State of California's waiver request. Now, the Agency says they will not respond to the document request by the deadline."

"Who does the Administrator think he and the EPA work for? The EPA Administrator needs to be reminded that he works for the American people. The Bush EPA can run, but they can't hide. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will hold the Bush EPA accountable for this outrageous, unprecedented decision."

EPA's letter to Chairman Boxer was transmitted to the Committee via fax at 4:40 pm ET on Friday afternoon, January 4. Chairman Boxer wrote back to the Administrator and reiterated her demand that key documents be provided to the Committee by the original January 7 deadline. The letters are attached.

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