Rep. Issa Renews Demand for Probe of Administration’s Suppression of Dissent in Cap & Trade Debate

WASHINGTON. D.C. – Rep. Darrell Issa (CA), the Ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, today renewed his request to Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Edolphus Towns (D-NY) to investigate reports that the Administration has inappropriately suppressed internal dissent in the Cap & Trade debate.

“By limiting the range of acceptable viewpoints at the agency, EPA is undermining the trust and confidence the American people should have in one of the most significant regulatory decisions of our time,” said Issa in his letter to Towns.

Rep. Issa’s latest request follows new information gathered in interviews with EPA employees that, despite denials by agency officials, a career civil servant who expressed skepticism about the Administration’s scientific basis for limiting carbon output was in fact a member of the EPA work group working on the endangerment finding and the technical support document. In an attempt to dismiss allegations of suppression, EPA claimed that “certain opinions were expressed by an individual who is not a scientist and was not part of the working group dealing with the issue.”

At issue is the work of Dr. Alan Carlin, a 37 year career civil servant, who has worked on climate change issues for approximately 7 years at EPA. Carlin’s report questioned some of the scientific assumptions in the technical support document (TSD), which supplies the scientific justification for the endangerment finding. Carlin argued that it relied too heavily on the United Nations International Panel on Climate Change report published in 2007, and that more recent data justified an independent scientific assessment from EPA.  However, Dr. Carlin’s report was not included in the official record because, according to the Director of the National Center for Climate Change, the Administration had already “decided to move forward on endangerment” and his comments, “did not help the legal or policy case for the decision.”

Issa further expressed his concern that the suppression of the Carlin report is part of a broader pattern of intimidation at EPA against dissenting views.  “It appears that EPA systematically attempts to damage the reputation of dedicated career civil servants who have raised legitimate concerns about the agency’s decision,” wrote Issa.

In another incident, the Administration brushed off the advice of an Office of Management and Budget memo that warned that the EPA’s endangerment findings would have “serious economic consequences.” According to Administration sources, those warnings were dismissed, in part, because they originated from a “Bush holdover,” despite the fact that this career civil servant was hired by the Clinton administration.

Click here to read Rep. Issa’s letter to Rep. Towns.