Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), top Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee, and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, have been investigating inappropriate record keeping practices within the Administration, stemming from concerns over former EPA Administrator Jackson's e-mail alias "Richard Windsor." Click here to read more.

Washington Free Beacon

Lisa Jackson Contacted Lobbyist from Private Email
Newly released emails suggest EPA administrator used home email address in addition to ‘Richard Windsor' account
By CJ Ciaramella | August 14, 2013

Former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson used her private email to conduct official business, including with a lobbyist, in a possible violation of federal record laws.

The emails were part of the latest batch of documents released through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI). The conservative nonprofit has been digging through Jackson's correspondence for months after it discovered she used a secret EPA email address under the pseudonym "Richard Windsor."

Alison Taylor, a vice president for the multinational company Siemens, emailed Jackson's "Richard Windsor" account in December 2009 asking if Jackson "might be able to spare a few minutes to meet with Siemens' global sustainability officer (who is my boss) Barbara Kux."

"She'd like to meet you and to express her support for your good work on climate," Taylor wrote.

Jackson agreed. Shortly after, she sent a second email: "P.S. Can you use my home email rather than this one when you need to contact me directly? Tx, Lisa."

At the time, Taylor was a lobbyist for Siemens. Siemens spent more than $5 million lobbying the federal government, including the EPA, in 2009, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

In another email chain between her and Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune, Jackson's personal Verizon email address is redacted under a privacy exemption, only to be left unredacted a few lines later.

If federal employees use their private email for business, they must send the email to their official government account for record keeping purposes.

Jackson's use of the secret "Richard Windsor" account riled transparency advocates and Republican investigators in Congress, who worried such practices skirted FOIA regulations.

But the new evidence suggests that Jackson used a third, private email address.

"There's no ambiguity here," said CEI senior fellow Chris Horner, who first discovered Jackson's secret email account. "This reflects a clear intention to violate law and policy."

In an interview with Environment & Energy Publishing, Anne Weismann, chief counsel for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said the email between Jackson and Taylor was "extremely troubling."

"I agree that was a very interesting line in there because it's clear that it was discussing agency-related business and this was someone that she knew in her capacity as administrator of U.S. EPA," Weismann said. "As difficult as it may be to capture all the emails that are sent or received when she uses [the Richard Windsor account], it's basically impossible to locate emails that are sent to or from a home email address."

EPA political appointees were instructed by the Obama administration in 2009 to "not use any outside email account to conduct official agency business."

The news is also drawing sharp rebukes from GOP lawmakers who investigated Jackson's "Richard Windsor" account.

"For months this Administration has brushed off transparency concerns, especially when it comes to federal record-keeping laws. EPA Administrator Jackson, aka ‘Richard Windsor', has been the biggest culprit," Sen. David Vitter (R., La.) said in a statement Wednesday.

"Even with EPA's recent promises to review and revamp its email practices and policies, the mere fact that the agency's Administrator was trying to circumvent ‘sunshine' laws is a huge red flag for the effectiveness of the agency and the Administration," Vitter continued. "There is a statutory obligation to preserve and not destroy agency communications, and I hope that Ms. Jackson will take the appropriate steps to ensure all her communications during her time as head of the agency are properly preserved."

Jackson resigned earlier this year in the midst of a congressional investigation into the EPA's record keeping practices.

The investigation uncovered more questionable practices among high-level agency officials. An EPA regional administrator resigned in the midst of a congressional probe after it was revealed he used private email to conduct business.

In response to the investigations, the EPA Inspector General announced it was auditing the agency's FOIA compliance and record keeping. The EPA also announced it would retrain its more than 17,000 employees on record keeping

When reached for comment, an EPA spokeswoman did not address Jackson's email practices but pointed to the agency's recent steps to improve its practices.

"The Environmental Protection Agency is committed to adhering to the appropriate regulations and laws for both federal records management and email use," the spokeswoman said in an email to the Free Beacon. "EPA continues to work with the Inspector General in its review of EPA's email practices and policies, and is prepared to give full consideration to any recommendations for improvements identified in that review."

An Associated Press investigation earlier this year found secret email addresses used by other top Obama administration officials, such as Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius.

Agencies and the White House defended the practice, saying it was common in previous administrations and necessary, given the large amount of email that flood officials' public inboxes.

Jackson did not immediately respond to request for comment sent to her private email address.

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Washington Times
"Sue and Settle" and the Carbon Tax
By Senator David Vitter
July 22, 2013

At once, the Obama Administration has advanced the most aggressive, far-left environmental agenda ever and developed the most secretive, behind-closed-doors way of doing it. And that's not by accident. Hiding its full plans from the public is essential because of their sweeping effect - lost jobs and higher energy prices.

One favorite technique the Obama crowd uses to advance its far-left agenda in relative obscurity is through "sue and settle." This is how it works: a far-left environmental group sues a federal department or agency, like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), claiming that the government is not satisfying its regulatory obligations. Then, after the group and the EPA plan and discuss the matter - without the involvement of any others, including affected business, landowners, and state and local governments - they draft a settlement agreement committing the agency to regulate a certain sector of the economy or type of private property. All that's left is to get the presiding judge to bless their friendly agreement.

There's even a bonus prize in this scheme. Because such a settlement is counted as a "win" for the environmental group plaintiff, that suing group is awarded all of its costs and attorney's fees, creating a revolving fund for its continuing activity, courtesy of our wallets.

Presto: the left, including the Obama Administration, advances its aggressive environmental agenda. No need for messy Congressional hearings or opposing arguments.

During this Administration's tenure, these friendly settlement agreements have become the norm for the environmental activist community, allowing them to force action at the agency. Unfortunately, the resulting regulation often has large scale, negative economic impacts for states, businesses, and landowners.

Environmental groups particularly see "sue and settle" deals as a way to get the EPA moving on the specific rule-making they want. The EPA is notorious for missing statutory rulemaking deadlines on virtually everything - particularly Clean Air Act (CAA) programs. In the last 20 years, the EPA has met CAA rulemaking deadlines just two percent of the time. Because of this, environmental groups can pick and choose what areas to focus on, such as New Source Performance Standards and Utility MACT regulations that target coal, gaining enormous leverage and involvement in the process.

As the Obama Administration turns its attention to the recently announced Climate Action Plan, these secret "sue and settle" consent decrees will facilitate EPA and environmentalists efforts to raise energy costs. Be on the lookout in particular for the left to try to use "sue and settle" to establish a carbon tax or its equivalent.

During a June 25 speech, President Obama laid the groundwork to implement regulations that effectively introduce a carbon tax on Americans. Now to be clear, a tax on carbon is a tax on our energy supply. It is an economic burden that would be clearly felt by every consumer - every American who drives to work, uses air conditioning in the summer, or heats their home in the winter.

Because a carbon tax will be a real body blow to the economy, it makes perfect sense that the Administration and its allies would prefer to do this behind closed doors. They already know there's zero chance Congress will pass a carbon tax. During the Budget Resolution debate in March, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) offered a carbon tax amendment, which was soundly defeated 41 to 58 in the Democrat-led Senate. In the House, the Republican majority has made it clear that a carbon tax is not on the table, or even in the room.

So will President Obama and his far-left allies implement this crucial part of their extreme agenda without Congressional action?

The answer is they're trying their darndest. And the Administration clearly has found a successful loophole with "sue and settle" that allows them to force unpopular policy on the American people without input from the public and other branches of government.

To combat this, Republicans on the Environment and Public Works Committee made "sue and settle" abuse a major issue during the recent confirmation process for the EPA administrator. As a result, we won several concessions from the EPA, which will shed more light on the agency's actions. This includes requiring the EPA to publish on two websites the Notices of Intent to Sue (NOI) and Petitions for Rulemaking upon receipt. Those websites are already up and running and will give affected parties far more notice regarding what the EPA is up to.

But more work remains. We still need a heck of a lot more transparency and accountability to make a difference in stopping the hidden far-left environmental agenda that could put our economy further in trouble. Hard-working Americans deserve to know exactly what's being proposed and the impacts it would have on the environment, as well as energy prices and jobs.

Senator David Vitter of Louisiana is the top-ranking Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

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President Obama should make administration personnel available for a Senate hearing Thursday on climate change, even though the committee holding the hearing has not asked them to attend, the panel's top Republican said yesterday.

Senate Environment and Public Works ranking member David Vitter (R-La.) wrote a letter to Obama asking him to provide representatives of his administration for Thursday's hearing who can discuss his second-term climate change agenda.

The committee's chairwoman, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), has titled the hearing "Climate Change: It's Happening Now," and has said it will focus on climate science. She has said the witness panel will be stocked with scientific experts but has yet to release a list of those attending.

But Vitter, who has seen the list, says it is lacking in administration officials who could shed light on Obama's climate change plans, outlined last month at Georgetown University.

"The potential for your climate plan to exacerbate the serious economic problems that currently persist justifies providing a panel of federal witnesses who are charged with implementing your agenda, to testify to the scope, purpose, and consequences of such unilateral action," he said in the letter.

Vitter zeroes in on four points he has highlighted in his first six months as the panel's top Republican. These include the process that led to the administration's new, higher estimate for the social cost of carbon released earlier this year, and the Treasury Department's lack of response to requests for documents he says might show that it is developing a carbon tax proposal (E&E Daily, July 15).

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Click here to read the remainder of the article.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce - Free Enterprise

Vitter Scores Big Win for Greater Transparency and Accountability
By Bill Kovacs | July 9, 2013

Senator David Vitter (R-LA), who serves as ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW), today said that the EPA has made significant progress on five transparency requests that Republican members of the EPW have demanded, which are tied to the nomination of Gina McCarthy to lead to the EPA.

The U.S. Chamber congratulates Senator Vitter for his strong leadership in obtaining commitments from the EPA that will make it a more transparent and accountable agency.

According to Vitter's office, the EPA has committed to the following:

FOIA - the EPA agreed to mandate the re-training of the 17,000+ EPA workforce as well committing to issuing new guidance on records maintenance and use of personal email accounts pursuant to and upon completion of the audit by the Inspector General.

FOIA re-training should prove helpful in allowing the EPA to respond in a timely and sufficient manner to requests from the American people, and organizations like the Chamber. After submitting a FOIA request in September of last year on data that EPA was mandated under law to produce, the Chamber was told repeatedly that more time was needed, the FOIA request was lost, and ultimately - ten months later - that the data couldn't be found. We hope that re-training will help the agency to be more transparent and responsive in managing information requests with all interested parties.

Scientific Data (relied on by EPA in revising major air regulations) - EPA has initiated the process of obtaining the requested scientific information, as well as reaching out to relevant institutions for information on how to de-identify and code personally identifying information that may be in any of the data. For the first time we should be able to determine if there is any way of independently re-analyzing the science and benefits claims for a suite of major air regulations.

This data is the foundation for most of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards' (NAAQS) health effects, and this commitment from EPA will make a critical difference to scientists who must evaluate the health benefits of new NAAQS standards.

Economic Analysis - EPA is launching a process to convene an independent panel of economic experts with experience in whole economy modeling at the macro and micro level to review EPA's modeling and the agency's ability to measure full regulatory impacts, and to make recommendations to the agency.

The Chamber released a report in February, conducted by NERA Consulting, revealing significant flaws in EPA's current regulatory impact analyses because in many cases the agency either ignored impacts on employment or used a model that considered only part of the potential overall impacts of compliance on multiple industries. The report concluded that the better approach for assessment of the overall economic and employment impacts of rules with large economy-wide costs is to model the impact of regulation compliance cost through a "whole-economy" model. This approach takes into account the cascading effects of a regulatory change across interconnected industries and markets nationwide.

Sue and Settle - To help resolve some of the challenges with lack of public input in closed-door settlement agreements, otherwise referred to as "sue and settle", EPA will publish on two websites the Notices of Intent to Sue (NOI) and Petitions for Rulemaking (PFR) upon receipt. Those websites can be found at http://www2.epa.gov/aboutepa/petitions-rulemaking and http://www.epa.gov/ogc/noi.html.

The Chamber recently found at least 60 different occasions between 2009 and 2012 where EPA entered into sue and settle agreements with interest groups. These settlements directly resulted in EPA agreeing to propose more than 100 new regulations, many of which would impose tens of millions of dollars, or even billions, in compliance costs. A troubling lack of transparency means that the sue and settle process is increasingly being used as a technique to shape agencies' regulatory agendas, without input from the public or the regulated community. Publishing these NOIs and PFRs online will help ensure that the federal rulemaking process is governed by principles of open government.

We commend Sen. Vitter for working with the EPA to enact changes that will benefit the American people and lead to greater public participation and accountability.

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