CEI’s Horner Applauds House Committee’s Demand for EPA Records

WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan. 24, 2013 – Christopher Horner, senior fellow in the Center for Energy and the Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said he applauds efforts by Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, the new chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, to force Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson to produce emails from her alias Richard Windsor account. But he is not hopeful much will come of the chairman’s request.

“I suggest that only when Ms. Jackson is gone and gainfully employed will EPA show even the pretense of interest in full cooperation,” said Horner, who uncovered the “Richard Windsor” alias while researching his book, “The Liberal War on Transparency.”

As reported by John McArdle of Energy and Environment News, Smith and fellow top Republicans threatened in a letter yesterday to take “formal action” against Jackson if her office does not begin to provide records to the committee regarding the administrator’s alternative email account by Feb. 6. Jackson has announced she plans to leave office sometime after the State of the Union address on Feb. 12, and Smith said he wants to “ensure a response from the Administrator prior to her departure from the federal government.”

Said Horner of EPA’s continued stonewalling:

“The common thread running through EPA’s behavior to date regarding the false-identity account we discovered is the agency has no intention of coming clean, at least without a fight. Instead, its behavior indicates an intention to try and tap-dance as deep into the calendar on this matter as possible in hopes interest and possible repercussions — including from the details of discussions, which were such that a false identity was used to engage in them — will fade by the time the truth comes out.

“The agency’s deliberately worded phrases deployed with us, which run counter to facts we have discovered, are of a part with its refusal to provide straight answers to the House Science Committee – already ignored twice by EPA – as well as the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.”

>> For more on the EPA’s Richard Windsor email scandal, see http://cei.org/richard-windsor.