memo as talking points, but the advice was never actually given to Johnson.

"No one ever came in and said, 'You're going to have to resign,' " Shradar said.

The story behind the memo is almost as interesting as the memo itself. After the document was revealed Tuesday, former EPA administrator William Reilly, who served under President Bush's father, called Boxer's office to alert it that the talking points were written for him.

In an interview with The Chronicle late Tuesday, he said he called Margo Oge, director of the EPA's Office of Transportation and Air Quality, last year. A supporter of California's new rules, he wanted to know "how the issue was being framed at EPA" and how many waivers he had approved for California when he ran the agency.

Oge,branch officials weighed in on California's rules.

But documents previously released by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, show that Transportation Secretary Mary Peters joined Michigan lawmakers to lobby the EPA to reject California's request.

Boxer released other documents Tuesday, including an Oct. 31, 2007, e-mail in which a staffer in the EPA's climate change division wrote about trying to convince Johnson that California has the "compelling and extraordinary conditions" required by the Clean Air Act to set its tougher emissions rules.

"On compelling and extraordinary conditions, I got to chime in again," the unidentified staffer wrote, describing a meeting with Johnson.

"In addition to the argument that climate change may exacerbate CA's tropospheric ozone problem - for which CA has historically demonstrated compelling