"We're not trying to hide anything," Lapierre said. "But the purpose is to have very frank discussions, and people just don't do that when you have people taking notes."
The EPA offical "forgot" to acknowledge Mr. McNabb also wants to bring representatives of elected officials.
I don't blame the EPA for wanting to keep the hearing secret. That way they can threaten, browbeat, or say whatever they want and then deny anything if challenged. Or conceivably they are looking for a face-saving way out (not highly likely). At the least, McNabb should have his lawyer and a good tape recorder along, maybe even a videocamera set up.
It will be interesting to watch and see if the EPA has changed it's stripes since the good ol' Reno and Browner days where everything looked like it could be solved by a tank, a jackbooted raid (as in this case), a starchamber hearing and horrendous fines and jail time for the unlucky caught in their gunsights.
Probably not. An agency like this is usually chock full of the sort of bureacrats who are power-trippers and ideologues of the worst stripe. They don't go away easily once they get their hooks into these jobs. They become crusaders, not public servants, on a Mission From Gaia. The public tends to take on the coloring of something to be conquered rather than obliged.
In the late 90s, Mr. McNabb hired a "recovering" alcoholic because he wanted to give him a break and help get him straightned out. The guy eventually started coming in drunk and was throwing tools at people, so Mr. McNabb fired him.
The drunk got together with some of his union buddies over at Ecusta, and figured out a plan to get even - filing a complaint of illegal dumping (and who knows what else - the complaint is sealed) against ACS.
An inspector showed up at ACS unannounced one day, and sat herself down in Mr. McNabbs office. When he came in, she told him who she was and that she wanted to inspect his plant.
He asked what she was looking for and she refused to say. After some words, her attitude apparently angered Mr. McNabb, and he ran her off.
She left, and the rest is history. The DENR is simply trying to harass him, and doing a very good job of it, it seems.
Now, as you know, if you apply for a hazardous waste permit you are agreeing to unanounced inspections at any time during normal business hours. But, since this Zep stuff simply evaporates, there is no hazardous waste.
This whole thing reminds me of the incident in John Ross's book "Unintended Consequences" when the BATF did a similar thing to the main character of the book.