Emails reveal close rapport between top EPA officials, those they regulate

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

Emails reveal close rapport between top EPA officials, those they regulate

By Juliet Eilperin
July 1 at 2:13 PM

On the morning of April 1, 2017, Environmental Protection Agency appointee Mandy Gunasekara welcomed to her office a team of lobbyists representing the makers of portable generators.

For months, the Portable Generators Manufacturers’ Association had been trying to block federal regulations aimed at making its product less dangerous. The machines — which are used by many Americans during power outages after severe storms — emit more carbon monoxide than cars and cause about 70 accidental deaths a year.

Just before President Barack Obama left office, the Consumer Product Safety Commission had voted to force the industry to make generators that emit lower levels of the poisonous gas. Now industry lobbyists were warning Gunasekara of “a potential turf battle . . . brewing” between the commission and the EPA, which traditionally regulates air emissions from engines.

Less than six weeks later, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt sent a letter informing Ann Marie Buerkle, the commission’s acting chair, that his agency had primary jurisdiction over the issue. Just over three months later, Buerkle shelved regulations that had been almost 15 years in the making and opted instead for voluntary standards.

The communication between the lobbyists and one of Pruitt’s top policy aides — detailed in emails the agency provided to Democratic Sens. Bill Nelson (Fla.) and Thomas R. Carper (Del.) — open a window on the often close relationship between the EPA’s political appointees and those they regulate. Littered among tens of thousands of emails that have surfaced in recent weeks, largely through a public records lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club, are dozens of requests for regulatory relief by industry players. Many have been granted.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/emails-reveal-close-rapport-between-top-epa-officials-those-they-regulate/2018/07/01/6c5a62b6-7642-11e8-805c-4b67019fcfe4_story.html

[dameatball]

1. Just to avoid any confusion, it is important to read the article linked, as to what Bill Nelson's

position was and is. He is in a tough battle with Republican governor and medicare fraud, Rick Scott, for his senate seat. I want to point out his mention in the article was adversarial to the EPA agreement on the standards for safety. Nelson was strongly in favor of increased safety standards and lower emissions.
I had no idea, prior to reading this article, how many annual deaths were caused by these generators....or at least by improper placement and usage of them.

[mitch96]

2. Sounds like the same situation with Wall Street and the SEC..

All these fuckers sleep with each other for their mutual benefit. NOT the public..
m