[StBernard] Radical environmentalists take desks at the EPA: James Varney

[Westley Annis]

Radical environmentalists take desks at the EPA: James Varney
Print James Varney, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune By James Varney, NOLA.com
| The Times-Picayune 
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on August 01, 2014 at 12:26 PM, updated August 01, 2014 at 12:37 PM

As Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts once said, powerful unelected
government figures should serve as umpires, calling balls and strikes but
not setting strategy and crafting game plans. That neutral approach seems to
have been abandoned at the Environmental Protection Agency.

That is one of the more disturbing conclusions - of which there are many -
derived from the report released by the Republican minority members of the
Senate's Committee on Environment and Public Works.

Rather than approach critical and often hot-button issues like energy from
an impartial stance, the EPA under President Barack Obama seems to be on the
side of left-wing environmental activists. Consequently, neither a fair nor
a reasonable approach to policy is possible.

The EPA is certainly not the first big government agency to be hijacked by
outside interest groups. At the top level of the Treasury Department, for
example, there seems to be a sort of rolling sidewalk between Washington and
top finance figures on Wall Street. From time to time questions arise about
ties between the Defense Department and major weapons manufacturers and the
like.

But the ties uncovered by Sen. David Vitter, R-La., and other committee
members between the EPA and radical environmental groups suggest a
calculated and focused effort directed, Vitter believes, against fossil
fuels.

"Federal agencies, which wield significant amounts of delegated power,
should be staffed with neutral experts dedicated to serving the public
interest," the report noted. "This section (of the report) reveals that as
part of the far-left scheme, the Obama Administration has installed an
audacious green-revolving door at EPA, which has become a valuable asset for
the environmental movement and its wealthy donors."

All told, Vitter's committee report identifies seven environmental activists
currently holding top-level jobs at the EPA. These include deputy
administrators formerly with the National Resources Defense Council, as well
as regional administrators with past ties to the NRDC, Environmental Defense
Fund, various public research interest groups and other outfits.

In addition, the report cites at least eight other former EPA officials with
green activist backgrounds, many of whom have returned to posts with
environmental groups. The ties between outside groups and the EPA became so
pronounced that even The New York Times took notice, labeling it the "NRDC
Mafia" in a March 2009 story.

This kind of revolving door, the report notes, "provides insider access to
important policy decisions," but taxpayer dollars are at stake, too.

"It appears activists now at EPA also funnel government money through grants
to their former employers and colleagues," the report says.

The top five outfits receiving grants, ranging from more than $13 million to
the American Lung Association to some $65,000 to the National Wildlife
Federation, raked in almost $28 million. But there appear to be egregious
smaller examples, too.

In particular, the report cites Region 2 Administrator Judith Enck and her
involvement with two activists groups. She served as president of one, the
Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, before joining the EPA. Since she took the
helm of Region 2 in 2009, her former group has received four EPA grants
totaling $159,342, according to the report.

It's not as if all of this is a revelation. The report notes that the EPA's
Office of Inspector General has Enck under investigation. As of May the
agency's OIG has two other cases "regarding ethical concerns with senior EPA
officials," the report states, citing an email message from the OIG to the
committee.

Already, several high-ranking EPA officials have been disciplined or forced
out of their positions after it was revealed they colluded via email or
other means with various far-left environmental groups. Among them was
former Administrator Lisa Jackson, who departed in controversy after using a
variety of email aliases to mask her connections.

Furthermore, the evidence unearthed by the committee of strong ties between
radical environmentalists and the EPA is of a piece both with history and
Obama's stated goals.

While seeking the presidency in 2008, Obama famously threatened to bankrupt
anyone seeking to build a coal-powered plant. Time and again Obama has vowed
to take unilateral action on environmental issues Congress, whose members
are presumably still attuned with their constituents, won't pass.

This is all part of the "fundamental transformation" of America Obama
promised, but it hardly seems the stuff of American dreams. If the people
aren't behind the far-left agenda of the environmental movement, the EPA and
the White House have no business forcing the country on a path it has no
wish to follow.

That isn't leadership; it's authoritarianism.
 
James Varney can be reached at jvarney at nola.com.