Emails show ‘collusion’ between EPA, environmental lobby: watchdog

The Washington Times ^ | September 15, 2014 | Stephen Dinan

[jazusamo]

The EPA and environmental groups are exceptionally close for a government agency and lobby groups, with a revolving door and pressure from the groups often shaping EPA’s policies, according to a new report from a conservative watchdog group based on emails obtained in a yearslong battle with the agency.

The report, which details what the Energy & Environment Legal Institute terms “collusion” between the Environmental Protection Agency and eco-friendly groups, is also a study in the way E&E; used open records laws to force transparency on a secretive agency.

Chris Horner, the report’s author, said the emails show EPA officials aren’t acting as impartial regulators but as committed environmentalists whose minds are already made up on a number of the big issues that come before the agency. Mr. Horner said it was the equivalent of the EPA collaborating with oil companies.

“These emails reveal the realities of how the Obama EPA operates, and candid admissions among themselves and pressure group allies about their shared agenda and its impacts,” Mr. Horner said. “The emails’ content also explains why the administration so furiously opposes efforts to obtain the oft-promised transparency: These realities wouldn’t possibly sit well with the broader public.”

The EPA didn’t respond to a request for comment, and neither did the Sierra Club, which takes the lion’s share of criticism from the report.

Mr. Horner’s report lists numerous times that EPA officials didn’t recuse themselves despite handling decisions where their former colleagues at environmental groups were lobbying them for a specific outcome.

He also details collaboration between the EPA and the Sierra Club to try to shape press coverage, the EPA letting Sierra Club officials submit comments for the public record even before the official comment periods had begun, and EPA officials soliciting legal opinions from the Sierra Club...

[jazusamo]

Here’s the link to the Energy & Environment Legal Institute Report:

http://eelegal.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/EE-Legal-FOIA-Collusion-Report-9-15-2014.pdf

[theBuckwheat]

One of the roots of such wasteful, foolish, thuggish, and tyrannous government is the ease with which it can create almost unlimited amounts of money out of thin air. Near-infinite money buys near-infinite government, and a bureaucracy that is generously funded can entertain an open-ended dream about how to expand its realm.

Every day more people are coming to the judgment that a carefully organized effort to repair the constitution via the States’ power to propose and ratify amendments has less risk to our liberty and prosperity than the present trajectory of the federal government and especially the federal bureaucracy.

The first order of business of an Article V Convention must be to limit government’s ability to create and spend near-infinite amounts of money.

[molson209]

Shut down the EPA and you Shut down the Environmentalists

[Repeal The 17th]

“... lobby groups shaping EPA policies ...
“... collusion between the EPA and eco-friendly groups ...”
-
Anyone who has ever has to deal with them
over the last 20 years knows this has been going on.

[Prophet2520]

It would be nice if the people in the EPA, the Sierra Club, and other guilty liberal organizations faced criminal penalties, and EPA reforms were mandated, but I am not holding my breath.

It is sad but not surprising that Obama ran on a campaign of government openness, and has been the most closed government ever.