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WASHINGTON — EPA chief Stephen Johnson has declined to explain before Congress how a conclusion he made last year that global warming put the public in danger could lead to a decision not to regulate greenhouse gases.

In a 28-page document that the White House and the Environmental Protection Agency have refused to release, the agency said last December that global warming could endanger public welfare, according to excerpts released Thursday by a Senate committee. The hearing, which was going to examine the role of the White House in EPA decisions, particularly on global warming, was canceled.

The White House allowed the Senate Environment Committee's staff to examine the draft findings Wednesday night. The panel's chairwoman, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., released brief excerpts from it Thursday.

"Given the stated vulnerabilities, risks and impacts from climate change on air quality, agriculture, forestry, water resources, ecosystems, coastal areas, the energy sector, infrastructure … the administrator is proposing to find that elevated levels of greenhouse-gas concentrations may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public welfare," Boxer's office quoted the document as saying.

The Supreme Court ruled last year that such a finding would compel the agency to begin regulating greenhouse gases from motor vehicles under the Clean Air Act. The Bush administration never officially published the document, and in December, according to accounts from a former top official, the White House Budget Office refused to open it when it was sent over in an e-mail.

Boxer said the document confirmed that Johnson had concluded that greenhouse gases posed a threat to the public and that the EPA should act. "It is clear. It is chilling. It is detailed," she said in a statement.

Johnson made no determination on global warming's risks in a formal notice earlier this month.

When asked why the administrator refused to appear before Congress, EPA press secretary Jonathan Shradar said that he was busy. He added that the administrator had testified before this session of Congress 17 times.