Cramer: EPA Should Explain Decision to Conceal Coal Regulation Listening Sessions
Press Release
BISMARCK, N.D. -- Today Congressman Kevin Cramer called on Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy to explain why her agency held none of its coal regulation listening sessions in a top ten coal state while also failing to record them for the public. On September 30th, the EPA announced plans to hold listening sessions on forthcoming greenhouse gas regulations for existing coal-fired power plants. The decision would affect 17,000 jobs, $3.5 billion in economic impact, and $100 million in tax revenue provided by the lignite coal industry in North Dakota.
The agency recently convened the 11 sessions in cities including Seattle, San Francisco, and Boston, while bypassing all ten states most reliant on coal generated electricity, including North Dakota. Cramer submitted a written request for a listening session in Bismarck, which did not receive a response from Administrator McCarthy. When McCarthy was before the Science, Space, and Technology Committee, Cramer again requested a listening session in North Dakota, to which she did not respond.
In a letter to McCarthy today, Cramer and other Science Committee Members said the EPA's decision not to make any public record of the proceedings at the listening sessions is the latest example of the lack of administrative transparency at the agency.
"First, as has been widely reported, EPA chose to hold nearly all of these listening sessions in areas of the country that would be the least affected by the rules," the letter reads. "Second, and perhaps even more troubling, it is our understanding the EPA did not transcribe, webcast, or otherwise record the comments presented at the 11 listening sessions. If there is no record of what was said, it's unclear how the Agency can claim the sessions were designed for the purpose of "helping EPA develop smart, cost-effective guidelines.'"
The letter concludes by imploring Administrator McCarthy to explain why the states most impacted by coal regulations were ignored and why the EPA chose not to record the listening sessions, and requesting the agency make public all written comments associated with the sessions.
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