EPA Whistleblower’s Office May Get Shut Down

by Gary Howard on August 26, 2009

in Blog

Following a whistleblower report that criticized a global warming rule, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is reportedly considering shutting down the agency office in which the critical report originated.  Dr. Alan Carlin, the senior analyst whose report EPA unsuccessfully tried to bury, worked in EPA’s National Center for Environmental Economics (NCEE).  According to a story in last Friday’s Inside EPA, the agency is now considering shutting that office down.
The Washington Times ran an editorial yesterday, critical of the potential shut down of the internal review office by the EPA.
In June, the Competitive Enterprise Institute made waves by releasing internal e-mails from the Environmental Protection Agency. In those messages, a top administrator told a key researcher that the researcher’s new report would not be released. Why? Because it does “not help the legal or policy case” for a controversial decision to treat global warming as a health hazard. In short, because researcher Alan Carlin’s conclusions differed from the administration’s political agenda, his research was ignored.
CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman appeared on the G. Gordon Liddy radio show yesterday to talk about the scandal, and the EPA’s plans to shutter the office that produced the controversial report.  Kazman reiterated what he said in a statement on Monday about the issue:
“Economists are the most likely professionals within EPA to examine the real-world effects of its policies,” said Kazman.  “For this reason, the NCEE is a restraining force on the agency’s out-of-this-world regulatory ambitions.  EPA would love to get that office out of the way, especially since it has within it civil servants like Dr. Carlin, who are willing to expose the truth about EPA’s plan to restrict energy use in the name of global warming.”
Blogger Michelle Malkin also takes the EPA to task for the move:

Over the past two months, I’ve chronicled the plight of EPA whistleblower Alan Carlin at the hands of Team Obama’s dissent-stiflers.  My friends at the Competitive Enterprise Institute first blew the lid on the story and continue to monitor the war on EPA watchdogs.  The latest development? EPA may get rid of a key internal review office that has provided too many inconvenient truths

Stay tuned for more developments in this story.

Larry Hoffmann August 26, 2009 at 3:31 pm

The EPA decision to declare carbon dioxide dangerous to human health is not based on science (carbon dioxide is not a pollutant and is in fact, beneficial). The decision must be considered political. Dr. Carlin’s report calling for more analysis of the science should have been heeded. Abolishment of his position must be considered a political move because declaring carbon dioxide dangerous to humans simply creates more beauracracy and power in the EPA.

Don August 31, 2009 at 8:58 am

Shutting down EPA's economics function, but building a "diversity" branch. "Jackson Creates New EPA Diversity Slot To Boost Environmental Justice Issues – EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson is creating a new senior-level position to oversee and coordinate all diversity issues at the agency, in order to further boost her ongoing drive to increase EPA's consideration of environmental justice impacts and the concerns of minority communities in agency decisions on rules and policies." Perfect.

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