Posted on 09/02/2014 2:27:28 PM PDT by jazusamo
Republicans are investigating what they call "improper influence" from a national green group on the Obama administration's signature Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) climate change regulation.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, as well as Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, are demanding the EPA and the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) hand over documents on the organization's involvement in drafting the proposed carbon pollution rules.
The investigation is based on a New York Times
' report
that said the NRDC provided the blueprint used for the rules, and "heavily influenced the president's proposal."
While the EPA has repeatedly slammed the Times'
piece, defending its proposal and employees it says sifted through thousands of comments and held countless meetings, Republicans remain unconvinced.
“It appears that NRDC’s unprecedented access to high-level EPA officials allowed it to influence EPA policy decisions and achieve its own private agenda. Such collusive activities provide the NRDC, and their financial backers, with an inappropriate opportunity to wield the broad powers of the executive branch,” the lawmakers wrote to the EPA and NRDC.
“The fact that an ideological and partisan group drafted a rule that places a tremendous cost on everyday Americans through increased electricity prices is harmful and outrageous…. Accordingly, these practices must cease immediately," the letters state.
The influence, the missives say, doesn't stop there.
According to documents obtained by the House Oversight Committee, NRDC also met with EPA staff about the "pre-emptive veto of the proposed Pebble Mine" in 2010.
The EPA recently called for restricting the construction of the proposed copper mine near Bristol Bay, Alaska, in order to protect the salmon population.
House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) are requesting the EPA and NRDC hand over documents and communications surrounding the carbon pollution rule on existing power plants from 2009 to the present.
They are also requesting all communications between the EPA and NRDC on the Pebble Mine from 2009 to the present.
The EPA said it plans to review the request and will respond.
Shortly after the Times published its article on NRDC's involvement, Administrator Gina McCarthy sent a memo to EPA staff mocking the publication and calling the assertions "preposterous."
"You crafted a proposal that ensures states and utilities have the flexibility they need to reduce carbon pollution in a practical and affordable way. You gave up evenings, weekends and time with your families to make sure we got this right, and you have the empty takeout boxes and coffee cups to prove it," McCarthy said in the memo.
While the agency's proposal echoes the NRDC plan pitched in 2010 on the flexibility afforded to states to meet the reduction targets, it does differ on the target of 30 percent reductions in carbon emissions by 2030.
The EPA is working to finalize the rules by next summer.
Nearly every government agency is in bed with its major lobbyists. Those can be crony-capitalist businesses, but in ideological washington, its more often going to be an NGO.
DOJ’s recent massive fine of Bank of America will be distributed among “fair housing” groups, such as La Raza and the remnants of ACORN.
Its no longer Republican vs. Democrat, it will become the Government Party, and its beneficiaries and workers, against everyone else.
Oh boy! Are we gonna have more hearings?
Absolutely...We desperately need to restore honesty in government by starting with an honest conservative president that will staff the cabinets with honest heads that have broad brooms.
It’s our only hope.
Oh boy, a probe.
That’ll show em.
Problem solved now.
Agreed...No department should have the power to unilaterally make rules, enforce them and levy fines for noncompliance.
The abuse is compounded when we have an agenda driven administration as we do now with 0bama.
So, are the paper shredders and hard-drive crashers working overtime at the EPA now, or have they planned ahead for this eventuality and therefore have been working steadily all along to hide or destroy all evidence of wrongdoing?
Re, “Oh boy, a probe”. Well, it all depends where that “PROBE” goes, and how far in.
Gina McCarthy is a real neo-fascist SOB so bringing her down would be a real plus for America.
I should live that long
Oh, yeah, they’ll do that for the big shots. But they won’t do anything about the communistic wood stove rule.
“Re, “Oh boy, a probe”. Well, it all depends where that “PROBE” goes, and how far in.”
If the “probe” is run by congressional Republicans, you can bet that it will be short, limp, and have leaks.
Oh, a limp Boehner!
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