More mischief

Now comes word that the Environmental Protection Agency has been abusing the Freedom of Information Act. Agencies can charge FOIA request makers for the time and effort to produce documents. They also can waive those charges if the applicants ask. Documents obtained by the Competitive Enterprise Institute show that the agency has granted such waiver requests from liberal groups 92 percent of the time — while rejecting or ignoring similar waiver requests from conservative groups 81 percent of the time. This shows a clear pattern of partisan preferential treatment that cannot be explained away.