E-Mail-Gate II: Obama EPA Caught Using Private E-Mail For Government Business
DIARY / DEAN CHAMBERS // Posted at 6:57 pm on March 23, 2016 by Dean Chambers
http://www.redstate.com/diary/qstar...ght-using-private-e-mail-government-business/
Obama’s EPA busted using private e-mails to conduct government business
Another Obama administration agency has been caught using private e-mails to conduct government business, much like Hillary Clinton had done as Secretary of State.
After obtaining documents via Freedom of Information Act request, the Energy & Environment Legal Institute (E&E Legal) reported how U.S. Environment Protection Agency (EPA) circumvented federal law by conducting official business on private e-mail servers with ‘green’ interest groups and “industry validator” lobbyists to write rules and regulations.
Michael J. Bradley, who as president and founder of a for-profit energy consulting firm was representing a number of corporate and ‘green’ energy advocates, sent an e-mail to Joe Goffman, senior counsel in the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation.
In that e-mail, Bradley wrote, “Joe, Would you please send this email to Gina [McCarthy, EPA Administrator] for me? I would have sent it to her directly with a cc to you but I don’t have a private email address for her and would prefer to not use an office email address.”
Addressing the rest of the e-mail to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, Bradley continues, “The companies [some of which are Bradley clients] want to remain supportive of the final CSAPR…Our goal is to have a rule implemented that is legally sound, gives the industry the needed business certainty for investments in cleaner generation, and addresses the air transport issues affecting many of the state in which the CEG members operate [CEG=Clean Energy Group, which is a coalition of electric generating and electric distribution companies that Bradley’s firm runs]. We would not want to see the rule stayed.”
According to previously released E&E Legal reports, the EPA under the previous Obama-appointed EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, also had a pattern of this practice of using private e-mails for conducting official government business.
“That it is a regular practice of senior officials of this EPA to use private e-mail accounts and other ‘off-book’ techniques to craft rules with ‘green’ activists with clear financial and political interests is now clear beyond a reasonable doubt,” said E&E Legal Senior Legal Fellow Chris Horner. “The e-mail from Michael Bradley, an individual representing private interests, to Joe Goffman and Gina McCarthy, which Goffman forwards to a non-official email account of his colleague, are obvious efforts to impact federal regulation outside of the required system.”
Obama’s EPA has come under fire for the undo influence that ‘green’ special interests groups have had in the making of public policy on environmental and energy policy, including the efforts to implement, without Congressional approval, carbon taxes and a cap and trade scheme.
“This Administration has a real problem understanding the rules when it comes to using private e-mail accounts to conduct public business,” said E&E Legal Executive Director Craig Richardson. “Hillary Clinton has set the bar for flagrant use of private email to conduct official business ‘off-line,’ but EPA comes in at a close second. In so doing the EPA has essentially outsourced it’s rule-making function to ‘green’ activists and rent-seeking lobbies hell-bent on destroying traditional energy sources in an effort to replace it with renewables, an industry that their wealthy benefactors are already making a killing at the taxpayer and ratepayer expense.”
This latest e-mail scandal also warrants full investigation as well. EPA officials are empowered to administer policies and regulations on behalf of the American people, and not the special interest groups, including the ‘green’ interests, that clearly have a vested interest in the outcome of these policies.
DIARY / DEAN CHAMBERS // Posted at 6:57 pm on March 23, 2016 by Dean Chambers
http://www.redstate.com/diary/qstar...ght-using-private-e-mail-government-business/
Obama’s EPA busted using private e-mails to conduct government business
Another Obama administration agency has been caught using private e-mails to conduct government business, much like Hillary Clinton had done as Secretary of State.
After obtaining documents via Freedom of Information Act request, the Energy & Environment Legal Institute (E&E Legal) reported how U.S. Environment Protection Agency (EPA) circumvented federal law by conducting official business on private e-mail servers with ‘green’ interest groups and “industry validator” lobbyists to write rules and regulations.
Michael J. Bradley, who as president and founder of a for-profit energy consulting firm was representing a number of corporate and ‘green’ energy advocates, sent an e-mail to Joe Goffman, senior counsel in the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation.
In that e-mail, Bradley wrote, “Joe, Would you please send this email to Gina [McCarthy, EPA Administrator] for me? I would have sent it to her directly with a cc to you but I don’t have a private email address for her and would prefer to not use an office email address.”
Addressing the rest of the e-mail to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, Bradley continues, “The companies [some of which are Bradley clients] want to remain supportive of the final CSAPR…Our goal is to have a rule implemented that is legally sound, gives the industry the needed business certainty for investments in cleaner generation, and addresses the air transport issues affecting many of the state in which the CEG members operate [CEG=Clean Energy Group, which is a coalition of electric generating and electric distribution companies that Bradley’s firm runs]. We would not want to see the rule stayed.”
According to previously released E&E Legal reports, the EPA under the previous Obama-appointed EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, also had a pattern of this practice of using private e-mails for conducting official government business.
“That it is a regular practice of senior officials of this EPA to use private e-mail accounts and other ‘off-book’ techniques to craft rules with ‘green’ activists with clear financial and political interests is now clear beyond a reasonable doubt,” said E&E Legal Senior Legal Fellow Chris Horner. “The e-mail from Michael Bradley, an individual representing private interests, to Joe Goffman and Gina McCarthy, which Goffman forwards to a non-official email account of his colleague, are obvious efforts to impact federal regulation outside of the required system.”
Obama’s EPA has come under fire for the undo influence that ‘green’ special interests groups have had in the making of public policy on environmental and energy policy, including the efforts to implement, without Congressional approval, carbon taxes and a cap and trade scheme.
“This Administration has a real problem understanding the rules when it comes to using private e-mail accounts to conduct public business,” said E&E Legal Executive Director Craig Richardson. “Hillary Clinton has set the bar for flagrant use of private email to conduct official business ‘off-line,’ but EPA comes in at a close second. In so doing the EPA has essentially outsourced it’s rule-making function to ‘green’ activists and rent-seeking lobbies hell-bent on destroying traditional energy sources in an effort to replace it with renewables, an industry that their wealthy benefactors are already making a killing at the taxpayer and ratepayer expense.”
This latest e-mail scandal also warrants full investigation as well. EPA officials are empowered to administer policies and regulations on behalf of the American people, and not the special interest groups, including the ‘green’ interests, that clearly have a vested interest in the outcome of these policies.
