Emails Show EPA’s ‘Open-Door Policy’ for Industries It’s Supposed to Regulate

The Environmental Protection Agency under administrator Scott Pruitt is a lobbyist’s dream come true, as the agency has been operating
in favor of the very industries it’s supposed to be regulating, EPA emails
show.

According to The
Washington Post, the communications
between EPA policy aides and lobbyists are part of tens of thousands of
emails obtained by a public records lawsuit brought by the Sierra Club. They show a cozy
relationship between lobbyists whose industries specifically benefited from
agency decisions to relax regulations, including in the portable generator
market, and the waste management, golf, and livestock industries, among others.

These decisions will have a lasting impact on the health and
safety of consumers. Regarding the generators, the report said the Portable
Generators Manufacturers’ Association for months had been trying to block federal
regulations that were 15 years in the making to require manufacturers to make
their products safer. According to the Post, these types of generators cause about 70 accidental deaths each year due to
carbon monoxide poisoning.

The report noted:

Just before President Barack Obama left office, the Consumer
Product Safety Commission had voted to force the industry to make generators
that emit lower levels of the poisonous gas. Now industry lobbyists were
warning [EPA appointee Mandy] Gunasekara of “a potential turf battle . . .
brewing” between the commission and the EPA, which traditionally regulates air
emissions from engines.

Less than six weeks later, EPA Administrator Scott
Pruitt sent
a letter informing Ann Marie Buerkle, the commission’s acting chair,
that his agency had primary jurisdiction over the issue. Just over three months
later, Buerkle shelved regulations that had been almost 15
years in the making and opted instead for voluntary standards.

In March 2017, a lobbyist for the company Waste Management
wrote two EPA appointees, telling them another lobbyist “sings your praises.”
The Waste Management lobbyist wanted a rule regulating methane emissions at
landfills addressed. The EPA under Pruitt was happy to oblige, delaying
implementation of that rule until 2020, the newspaper reported.

Additionally, a golf industry lobbyist wanted the Clean
Water Rule repealed. And a pork industry lawyer wanted air emissions rules
dealt with.

According to the Post:

And in June 2017, Michael Formica, a lawyer for the National
Pork Producers Council, sent
a note “from my SwinePhone” thanking Gunasekara and other senior
Pruitt aides “for your efforts to help address the recent air emission
reporting issues facing livestock agriculture.” The EPA later revamped its guidelines so that pork, poultry and dairy operations do not have to report on potentially hazardous air pollutants arising from animal waste.

Brendan Fischer, of the Campaign Legal Center, called
the operational environment at the agency an “open-door policy” for industries.
“As these emails show, when lobbyists ask top EPA officials to jump, the answer
is often ‘how high,’” he told the Post.

In a separate revelation produced by the Sierra
Club lawsuit and reported on Twitter by New
York Times investigative reporter Eric Lipton, early in his role as administrator, Pruitt liked to write actual
letters and send them by snail mail to oil and gas executives.

He wrote to BP America Chairman and President John Minge
that, “Our discussion was extremely helpful in understanding and learning more
about some of the issues facing BP.”

In a letter to Chevron Chairman and CEO John Watson, Pruitt
added a handwritten message saying, “Wonderful to spend time together!”

To an Oklahoma gas company CEO, the EPA administrator said
he “very much” appreciated the “time and counsel” on a variety of issues facing
the industry.

And the list of letters
continues on and on. Read them here:

By now, a compilation of Scott Pruitt’s Greatest Hits of Corruption
during his short term as head of the agency fills
pages and pages. These new reports on the emails and personal letters sheds
additional light on just cozy his office and staff are with industry lobbyists.
This is not good.