1.25.2008 6:15 AM

Senator Boxer Bashes EPA Head: "I've Never Seen Anything Like It" (Video)

Johnson on Hot Seat on Global Warming Decision

Barbara Boxer speaking at a hearing yesterday to discuss the EPA's report which denies California and 14 other states the right to cut tailpipe emissions. The tape in front of her was used to cover up the report.

Photo: Dennis Cook / AP Photo

By Deborah Barrow

It was California Senator Barbara Boxer versus EPA head Stephen L. Johnson yesterday on Capitol Hill.

It wasn't even a close match.

In an extraordinary hearing on Johnson's much-maligned decision to deny California and 14 other states the right to cut tailpipe emissions, committee head Barbara Boxer was quoted as saying: "You're going against your own agency's mission and you're fulfilling the mission of some special interests."

But that wasn't nearly the best part.

Boxer went on to describe the near-comic scene of the Senate committee's staff being blocked from seeing written reports by others in the EPA supporting the states' ability to impose the more rigorous legislation. Showing a pile of white tape that was used to literally cover up areas of the written reports, Boxer stated "I've never seen anything like it."