Thread: The EPA’s scandalous December

Note to reader: these are the same dirtbags promoting the global warming hoax.

The EPA’s scandalous December


The Environmental Protection Agency has been very, very naughty this Christmas.
Lucky for the rogue agency, an especially boisterous December news cycle kept the EPA’s prolific misbehavior off the front pages. Nonetheless, the month saw several unrelated developments all involving unethical—and sometimes, possibly illegal—behavior at the EPA.

The first bombshell emerged on December 14, as the Government Accountability Office issued a report finding that the EPA had violated federal law by conducting a “covert propaganda” campaign in support of the Clean Water Rule.

Some background: In the spring of 2014, the EPA sought to “clarify” which waterways are subject to federal jurisdiction. No surprise, the EPA suddenly discovered it should have newfound control over millions of acres of private property.

This power-grab met immediate opposition from diverse corners, including homebuilders, family farmers, manufacturers and even golf courses, which feared an onslaught of permitting requirements, inspections and other hassles. By the summer of 2015, a whopping 27 states had decided to sue the EPA over the Clean Water Rule.

With such throaty protest doubtless in mind, the EPA launched an aggressive social-media campaign, using Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and even Thunderclap to promote the Clean Water Rule. In doing so, the GAO concluded, it had attempted to covertly influence public opinion, also using taxpayer dollars in a lobbying effort—even though federal law forbids agencies from engaging in such activity.

But that’s just one instance of the EPA’s questionable activity.

Another scandal has been brewing at the agency since August, when an EPA cleanup crew botched a job at Colorado’s Gold King mine, unleashing millions gallons of chemical-tainted water into the Animas River, causing it to turn bright yellow.

Already, a report by the Department of Interior suggests the EPA lied about its role in the disaster. The EPA initially claimed the blowout was “likely inevitable” – but ederal investigators reported in October that the agency knew beforehand about the risks of a mine cleanup and chose to rush forward anyway, ignoring recommended precautions.
Then, on Dec. 18, the House Committee on Natural Resources wrote a letter highlighting how “three EPA employees with close ties to the agency’s public response to the Gold King Mine spill” had interviewed key witnesses in early December, several weeks before the Inspector General planned to issue a report on the disaster.
The EPA used those interviews with key witnesses to issue an addendum document that it said could help “clarify any misunderstandings about the incident.”

The Committee did not appreciate such a story-spinning intrusion from the EPA. “Specifically,” the letter says, “the Committee is concerned the EPA’s interview did not follow best investigative practices and may have interfered with the OIG’s ongoing investigation.”

The EPA’s problems keep piling up, too. Just a day after the Committee’s letter—and still just one week after the GAO issued its unrelated report on EPA’s legal shortcomings-- the Wall Street Journal editorial page broke news of fresh EPA emails obtained by ninja public-records lawyer Chris Horner.

The most shocking discovery in the batch: Regulators and green lobbyists secretly worked together to write regulations specifically intended to drive coal-fired power plants out of business. An EPA official—who, incidentally, had once worked as lawyer for green groups—sought feedback on regulatory drafts from environmental groups, using his private email account for the exchange and never docketing the conversation.

As the Journal noted, this sneak partnership on regulation raises serious questions about whether the EPA violated both the Administrative Procedures Act and the Federal Advisory Committee Act, both of which govern collaboration between federal agencies and private special-interest groups.

Add it to the list.

There’s a bitter irony in the EPA’s eyebrow-raising actions, given how hell-bent it has been on strangling everyone else in red tape. As of last summer, the EPA had issued a mind-blowing 3,373 new regulations under the Obama administration, codifying them in a staggering 29,770 pages of new policies.

(That’s the equivalent of reading Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight more than 54 times. The jury’s still out on which is the more unpleasant experience.)

At the overzealous EPA, the rules apparently don’t apply. Taken together, the EPA’s December highlight reel shows an agency operating with wanton disregard for ethics, best practices, and even the law.



http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-bl...alous-december

Takings Case: Judge allows EPA to be hauled into court over 2015 Gold King Mine disaster

By Bonner Cohen, Ph. D.
It took EPA seven years to clean up the mess it had made.

Takings Case: Judge allows EPA to be hauled into court over 2015 Gold King Mine disaster

By Bonner Cohen, Ph. D. |November 23rd, 2022|Environment|7 Comments

The party responsible for the biggest environmental disaster in U.S. history may soon have to defend itself in court thanks to a recent ruling by a federal judge in Washington, D.C. in response to a lawsuit filed by the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA).
What makes the case unique is that the accused polluter is none other that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), whose handling, or mishandling, of the August 2015 Gold King Mine disaster is being challenged by a Colorado resident who suffered harm as a result of the agency’s action.
EPA’s botched effort, using a contractor paid by the agency, to seal a long-abandoned goldmine near Silverton in Southwest Colorado resulted in a blowout that sent 3 million gallons of acid mine drainage and sludge and 880,000 pounds of metal spilling into the nearby Animas River. The river turned yellow, and the waste and other gunk were carried downstream into New Mexico and as far as Lake Powell in California. Not only was the environmental damage significant, but people with properties in the path of the disaster were caught up in the spill.
One of those was Colorado resident Todd Hennis on whose property the old Gold King Mine was located. In the aftermath of the spill, EPA moved supplies and heavy equipment onto Hennis’s land and installed a multi-million-dollar water treatment facility there – all without the property owner’s permission.
Physical Taking of Property Without Just Compensation
It took EPA seven years to clean up the mess it had made during which time it was an uninvited guest on Hennis’s property. Hennis says EPA “squatted” on his land and kept him from developing his property. With NCLA’s backing, he is now suing EPA for the physical taking of his property without just compensation in violation of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
“Mr. Hennis has been waiting over seven years for EPA to be held accountable not only for the environmental disaster it created, but its decision to take his property without paying for it,” Harriet Hageman, senior litigation counsel fir the NCLA said in a statement. Applauding Federal Claims Court Judge Armando Bonilla’s decision to allow the suit to go forward, Hageman added, “With today’s decision, Mr. Hennis will finally have the opportunity to pursue his claims against the U.S. and have his constitutional rights vindicated.”
Fir its part, EPA says the water treatment plant was built to mitigate the damage from the spill, and that the agency had come to an oral agreement with Hennis on the matter that is memorialized in at least 16 written, Cowboy State Daily reported (Sept. 12).
Hennis says this agreement was coerced and is invalid because EPA threatened him with fines of up to $59,000 per day if he didn’t comply. Cowboy State Daily also notes that there are court documents showing Hennis warned EPA that its proposed mine cleanup would lead to a natural disaster four years before the blowout occurred. This takings case with a twist could well wind up being resolved in the Supreme Court, a process that could take another couple of years.
After defeating Rep. Liz Cheney in the Republican primary in August, NCLA attorney Hageman, who specializes in water and land issues, was elected to Congress from Wyoming on Nov. 8 and will begin her term in January. Washington, D.C.-based NCLA is a nonpartisan, nonprofit is a civil right organization dedicated to protecting constitutional freedoms from violations from the administrative state.

Takings Case: Judge allows EPA to be hauled into court over 2015 Gold King Mine disaster - CFACT