The EPA attempted to prevent two of its attorneys from citing their experience as background for their opinions about cap and trade on the grounds that they violated federal policy, but the effort does not detract from the couple's important critique of pending climate and energy legislation
Two EPA staff attorneys, who published an op-ed in the Washington Post last week arguing that cap-and-trade was fatally flawed, are being reined in by the Environmental Protection Agency on reportedly ethical grounds and were asked to take down their informational video "The Huge Mistake." But attempts to prevent the attorneys from citing their EPA experience as background for their opinions may be born of an effort to muzzle their outspoken disagreement with pending climate legislation that has garnered significant media attention, rather than a need to comply with federal regulations.
According to the New York Times blog, Dot Earth, the EPA has insisted that Laurie Williams and Allan Zabel remove the video from YouTube as well as from their own website, explaining:
"...they could mention their E.P.A. affiliation only once; must remove language specifying Mr. Zabel's expertise and their years of employment with the agency; and must remove an image of the agency's office in San Francisco."
The demand came just days after the couple's op-ed was published, despite the fact that the video had been available online previously and that the couple had included a satisfactory disclaimer stating, ""Nothing in this video is
intended to represent the views of EPA or the Obama Administration."
The article incited NASA scientist James Hansen to support their opinions and motivated the NRDC to publish a short piece in the Washington Post, disagreeing with their criticism of cap-and-trade in the context of pending climate and energy legislation.
While the New York Times reports that the EPA is satisfied with Williams and Zabel's efforts to retract the video, an attempt that has involved removing it from their website and their YouTube account, a watchdog group called Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) believes the EPA is "abusing ethics rules to gag two conscientious employees..."
Whether the EPA is simply attempting to follow federal protocol or actually trying to muzzle the couple, Williams and Zabel's critique, made as concerned, knowledgeable citizens, is an important addition to the climate and energy debate. As the Senate version of climate and energy legislation moves through various committees it is critical that policy makers understand the weaknesses and limitations of the bill's cornerstone policy so that they can move more rapidly to design and implement truly effective climate and energy policy.
With certain Senators attempting to push this bill through as fast as possible, it doesn't seem to me they truly care about designing and implementing effective policy. Cap and trade legislation will present a significant opporunity for market manipulation and corruption, it will raise our energy prices and cause the loss of millions of American jobs. This is not an effective solution. Write your Senators at http://tiny.cc/YKJ4m.
Posted by: DCTJ at November 11, 2009 7:56 AM