WASHINGTON, DC - House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Tim Murphy (R-PA), and Energy and Power Subcommittee Chairman Ed Whitfield (R-KY) today sent a letter to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy seeking information regarding the use of social media platforms by EPA to promote the agency’s climate rules.
Earlier this week the nonpartisan watchdog Government Accountability Office (GAO) concluded that EPA had engaged in “covert propaganda" relating to its Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule through its use of Thunderclap, a “crowdspeaking platform," in an effort to increase support for the rule. Additionally, the watchdog report indicated that EPA engaged in illegal grassroots lobbying and also found that EPA violated the Antideficiency Act when it obligated and expended appropriated funds for its propaganda and grassroots lobby efforts.
Chairman Upton commented, “EPA getting busted for its illegal propaganda and lobbying on the WOTUS rule raises serious red flags, and we want to know if these shenanigans extended to the climate rules. EPA took an aggressive approach with respect to its climate rules and we want to ensure that EPA did not violate the law promoting these rules. The bottom line is EPA betrayed the public trust."
In the letter to Administrator McCarthy, the committee leaders write, “EPA’s actions potentially undermined the integrity of the rulemaking process concerning WOTUS, and call into question the use of social media to promote other rulemaking activity. For example, EPA undertook an extensive social media messaging campaign in support of its Clean Power Plan, authoring blog posts, and posting messages on Facebook and Twitter. The agency also used one of its primary Clean Power Plan hashtags (#ActOnClimate) in another Thunderclap campaign that potentially reached over 2.6 million individuals."
The leaders also requested EPA provide all Clean Power Plan social media and web postings, communications related to EPA’s social media and web postings on the Clean Power Plan, and an accounting of federal funds spent by EPA on soliciting comments in support of Clean Power Plan. The members also requested that the agency “certify in writing that EPA has not engaged in covert propaganda or grassroots lobbying when promoting the Clean Power Plan."
