Post by beauregarde on Sept 4, 2014 21:35:38 GMT -5
Congress Probes EPA's Cozy Ties With Green Group
Written by Investor's Business Daily on 04 September 2014.
Gina McCarthy, head of the EPA (about as butch as they come)
In recent years, the Environmental Protection Agency has acted less like a part of government and more like an out-of-control arm of the radical green movement. This is another flashing red light for our democracy.
A key House committee has launched an investigation into the EPA's cozy relationship with the radical National Resources Defense Council — a relationship so close that it's often hard to say where the EPA ends and the NRDC begins.
When it comes to the inquiry, it's about time.
It's bad enough that an arm of the American government having such sweeping regulatory powers as the EPA can shut down entire sectors of the American economy with so little input from the rest of us.
In this case, it appears to be what lawyers and economists call regulatory capture — that is, when a regulatory agency becomes so beholden to special interests that it no longer acts in the interest of average citizens.
As reported by the Daily Caller's Michael Bastasch, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa sent a letter this week to EPA administrator Gina McCarthy and NRDC President Frances Beinecke asking them about their ties.
"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," the letter said. "Such collusive activities provide the NRDC, and their financial backers, with an inappropriate opportunity to wield the broad powers of the executive branch."
The letter, which was also signed by Sens. David Vitter, James Inhofe and John Barrasso, and Reps. Jim Jordan and James Lankford, all Republicans, added: "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 letter is in response to recent EPA regulatory moves that pose a great threat to the U.S. economy.
In June, the regulatory agency issued strict, punitive rules to slash CO2 emissions from power plants by 30% over 15 years. These rules were not created by experts or by disinterested cost-benefit analysis.
No. In fact, a recent New York Times piece documented how a team of NRDC lobbyists hijacked the agency to craft the economy-killing new rules — to the detriment of all Americans.
As the Times' Coral Davenport reported, NRDC lobbyists David Doniger, David Hawkins and Daniel Lashof crafted a 110-page plan "aimed at slashing planet-warming carbon pollution from the nation's coal-fired power plants." It appears to be the inspiration, if not the blue-print, for the EPA's new rules.
Emails discovered between former EPA head Lisa Jackson and NRDC's Beinecke show the NRDC has long had powerful influence at the agency — including exclusive, high-level EPA meetings with NRDC officials on their CO2 policy proposals.
So, at minimum, EPA seems to have violated its institutional duty to serve the American people.
Nor is this an isolated case.
This past July, Republicans on the Environment and Public Works Committee documented how a small group of left-leaning environmentalist billionaires, through their extensive funding of green groups, wield enormous clout with the EPA.
As we've said before, the EPA is perhaps the most powerful domestic U.S. regulatory agency. Yet it virtually ignores the massive economic impact its draconian rules would have on average Americans and businesses.
For instance, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates the new EPA rules on carbon emissions — part of President Obama's climate change agenda — would cost the U.S. economy 2.3 million jobs and half a trillion in lost GDP over 10 years.
Giving control of vast swaths of our economy to special-interest environmentalists is but one of many reasons our ailing economy refuses to heal.
When a handful of influential radicals and billionaires have such clout in forming environmental policy, it should be stopped. We're glad to see Congress is now getting around to it.
Source
Written by Investor's Business Daily on 04 September 2014.
Gina McCarthy, head of the EPA (about as butch as they come)
In recent years, the Environmental Protection Agency has acted less like a part of government and more like an out-of-control arm of the radical green movement. This is another flashing red light for our democracy.
A key House committee has launched an investigation into the EPA's cozy relationship with the radical National Resources Defense Council — a relationship so close that it's often hard to say where the EPA ends and the NRDC begins.
When it comes to the inquiry, it's about time.
It's bad enough that an arm of the American government having such sweeping regulatory powers as the EPA can shut down entire sectors of the American economy with so little input from the rest of us.
In this case, it appears to be what lawyers and economists call regulatory capture — that is, when a regulatory agency becomes so beholden to special interests that it no longer acts in the interest of average citizens.
As reported by the Daily Caller's Michael Bastasch, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa sent a letter this week to EPA administrator Gina McCarthy and NRDC President Frances Beinecke asking them about their ties.
"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," the letter said. "Such collusive activities provide the NRDC, and their financial backers, with an inappropriate opportunity to wield the broad powers of the executive branch."
The letter, which was also signed by Sens. David Vitter, James Inhofe and John Barrasso, and Reps. Jim Jordan and James Lankford, all Republicans, added: "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 letter is in response to recent EPA regulatory moves that pose a great threat to the U.S. economy.
In June, the regulatory agency issued strict, punitive rules to slash CO2 emissions from power plants by 30% over 15 years. These rules were not created by experts or by disinterested cost-benefit analysis.
No. In fact, a recent New York Times piece documented how a team of NRDC lobbyists hijacked the agency to craft the economy-killing new rules — to the detriment of all Americans.
As the Times' Coral Davenport reported, NRDC lobbyists David Doniger, David Hawkins and Daniel Lashof crafted a 110-page plan "aimed at slashing planet-warming carbon pollution from the nation's coal-fired power plants." It appears to be the inspiration, if not the blue-print, for the EPA's new rules.
Emails discovered between former EPA head Lisa Jackson and NRDC's Beinecke show the NRDC has long had powerful influence at the agency — including exclusive, high-level EPA meetings with NRDC officials on their CO2 policy proposals.
So, at minimum, EPA seems to have violated its institutional duty to serve the American people.
Nor is this an isolated case.
This past July, Republicans on the Environment and Public Works Committee documented how a small group of left-leaning environmentalist billionaires, through their extensive funding of green groups, wield enormous clout with the EPA.
As we've said before, the EPA is perhaps the most powerful domestic U.S. regulatory agency. Yet it virtually ignores the massive economic impact its draconian rules would have on average Americans and businesses.
For instance, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates the new EPA rules on carbon emissions — part of President Obama's climate change agenda — would cost the U.S. economy 2.3 million jobs and half a trillion in lost GDP over 10 years.
Giving control of vast swaths of our economy to special-interest environmentalists is but one of many reasons our ailing economy refuses to heal.
When a handful of influential radicals and billionaires have such clout in forming environmental policy, it should be stopped. We're glad to see Congress is now getting around to it.
Source