I have to say that Stephen Johnson is the worst EPA administrator that I can remember (and I remember when a young Bill Ruckelshaus assumed the reins). He is so blatantly in the president's pocket that he actually harms industry interests because his credibility is so damaged that the American public no longer believes that the Agency takes science seriously.

Let's not forget  Anne Gorsuch Burford, who cut EPA's budget by 22 percent.  But the interesting thing about Johnson is that he's the first of Bush's three administrators, who is actually an environmental professional and has participated for many years in developing federal environmental regulations and policy.  While he knows enormously more than Whitman and Leavitt about how EPA works and should work, that seems to have made no difference whatsoever in the authority he has exercised at EPA.  All the major decisions he makes appear to be dictated from the White House and the Office of Management and Budget.  Thank goodness for a handful of court decisions that have kept this Anti-Environmental Protection Agency in check.