EPA cooks 'public comment' books on water rule

by Will Coggin  

The Environmental Protection Agency recently found itself in hot water. The New York Times revealed the agency colluded with environmental groups in a campaign to manufacture public comments in favor of a new rule that expands its own power. The agency's actions and the shenanigans of its environmentalist supporters shed light on how a bad rule can flow through the regulatory process.

...Almost immediately after its proposal, the rule prompted a wide opposition urging the EPA to "ditch the rule," from small businesses, farmers and ranchers, energy producers and others.
The EPA needed support for its water grab. While the EPA failed to consult with those harmed by the WOTUS rule, documents obtained by The New York Times show the EPA worked with environmental groups including the Sierra Club and National Resources Defense Council to manufacture public comments in its favor.

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy later testified at a Senate subcommittee hearing that 87 percent of the approximately 1 million public comments her agency received were supportive. By omitting mention of the efforts (or money spent) to solicit the comments, McCarthy attempted to make it look like there was a spontaneous groundswell of support for her rule.

And that wasn't the only subterfuge behind the EPA's power grab.

A number of left-wing groups camouflaged as sportsmen-friendly organizations, including the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, Backcountry Hunters and Anglers and Trout Unlimited, also were helping the EPA to foist the water rule onto an unsuspecting public.

In July 2014, TRCP called for "broad public involvement," setting the table for the EPA's campaign to gather public comment in support. This despite the fact that the organization's support had already been touted by the EPA in an effort to make it look like a broad coalition was in favor.

These groups claim to represent sportsmen's interests — giving the rule seemingly conservative support — but they are tangled in a web of money from left-wing foundations with anti-gun and anti-agriculture agendas. Backcountry Hunters and Anglers gets most of its donations from three environmental groups, according to tax records, while TRCP gets its money from a handful of Big Labor and Big Green groups. Trout Unlimited, meanwhile, has taken tens of millions from fringe environmental groups.

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It's our goose they're cooking, and the books are just one of the means.