Despite Agency Denials, Emails Show EPA Coordinated With Left-Wing Political Groups to Pressure Energy Companies;
EPA Head Dodges Questions

Corrupt.

Internal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) emails show extensive collaboration between top agency officials and leading environmentalist groups, including overt efforts to coordinate messaging and pressure the fossil fuel industry.

The emails, obtained by the Energy and Environment Legal Institute (EELI) through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, could fuel an ongoing controversy over EPA policies that critics say are biased against traditional sources of energy.

Emails show EPA used official events to help environmentalist groups gather signatures for petitions on agency rulemaking, incorporated advance copies of letters drafted by those groups into official statements, and worked with environmentalists to publicly pressure executives of at least one energy company.

Nancy Grantham, director of public affairs for EPA Region 1, which covers New England, asked an organizer for the Sierra Club’s New Hampshire chapter to share the group’s agenda so EPA could adjust its messaging accordingly in an email dated March 12, 2012.

“If you could, it would great [sic] if you can send me an email describing what you would like to do in early April in NH–that way I can coordinate messaging with our air offices here and at HQ,” Grantham wrote.

Critics of the agency and its nonprofit allies were surprised by the cooperation.

“The level of coordination in these documents is shocking,” EELI said in a statement.

It's a long article, reporting lots of incidences of coordination, so read the whole thing.

The EPA head learned about this when you did, when she read the paper this morning.

Sen. John Barrasso (R., Wyo.) grilled McCarthy on the issue at a Thursday hearing of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, reciting portions of a Wednesday Washington Free Beacon report on the emails.

One of those emails showed that deputy EPA administrator Bob Perciasepe held an event with two dozen environmentalist groups for the explicit purpose of helping them solicit comments supportive of stringent environmental regulations.

“Is it proper behavior for the EPA to go out with these groups for the sole purpose of recruiting additional comment signers to then go ahead and support your position?” Barrasso asked.

McCarthy declined to address the event specifically, saying she had not seen the email in question and was not aware of the Perciasepe event.

“I certainly don’t want to interpret what you just read, senator,” McCarthy said. “I don’t know what the occasion was, I’m sorry.”

I'm sure she's outraged and will get right on it.

posted by Ace at 06:50 PM

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