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.