Rep. Issa asks CARB for more documents about 54.5 mpg CAFE standards

A month ago, Darrell Issa (R-CA) sent letters to 15 automotive CEOs asking them for information about the possible safety effects of implementing the proposed new fuel economy standards. Now, he's following up with a new request to California Air Resources Board chairwoman Mary Nichols for documents about how CARB, the Obama administration and the automakers came to the agreement to hit 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. He's been down this road before, and claims that the 4,000 documents CARB sent him before were not enough, especially since some had already been made public. Therefore, Issa is asking for all of the documents CARB has on the matter and he's a little miffed CARB is supposedly holding out on him. According to the Detroit News, he said CARB's actions were "a deliberate attempt to mislead Congress and obstruct an official investigation."
Issa is asking for all this information in his role as chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. If CARB doesn't give him what he wants, Issa said he may issue a subpoena for the documents. We'll see how CARB responds by Issa's January 9 deadline. We imagine that Nichols will continue to respond as she did to one of Issa's earlier requests, when she said (PDF):

Although I appreciate and support the Committee's mandate to conduct oversight of federal government operations, I would hope that, especially in this time of fiscal restraint, instead of choosing to re-examine legally discredited arguments the Committee would support the development of improved regulatory coordination at the federal level that generates jobs and benefits consumers, industry, American energy security, and Main Street economies.

In other words, stop fishing.

To see how the Board has discussed the issue with the Congressman thus far, see this.