EPA accused of rigging review to block Alaska mine

According to this story the EPA is now being accused of rigging its review process and working with an anti-mining group in order to block the Pebble Mine Project in Alaska.

Here is more:

The Environmental Protection Agency is coming under increased scrutiny over accusations that it rigged its own review process to block the Pebble Mine project in Alaska.

The House Science, Space and Technology Committee is scheduled to weigh in Thursday with a hearing on whether EPA officials orchestrated an environmental assessment in concert with anti-mine groups to reach a predetermined outcome.

Exhibit A is an explosive Oct. 6 report by the Cohen Group, headed by former Defense Secretary William Cohen, which cited the EPA’s “unprecedented” evaluation process, including its decision to use procedures under the Clean Water Act instead of the National Environmental Policy Act to assess the project.

The 346-page report, commissioned by the Pebble Limited Partnership, the project’s developer, also said that the statements and actions of EPA officials raised “serious concerns” about the agency’s objectivity and transparency.

“This project is too important, for all stakeholders, to pilot a new, untested decision-making process,” said Mr. Cohen in the report. “The fairest approach is to use the well-established Permit/NEPA Process, and I can find no valid reason why that process was not used.”

  And here is more:

Rep. Lamar Smith, Texas Republican and committee chairman, said this week that the agency’s behavior on the Pebble Mine project “demonstrates how the EPA is truly out of control.”

“Secretary Cohen’s report lays out evidence that shows collusion and a cozy relationship between the EPA and groups actively opposed to the Pebble Mine,” said Mr. Smith. “These relationships could inappropriately influence EPA’s ability to conduct policy based on sound science.”

  This comes just a few short months after the EPA triggered a spill which leaked millions of gallons of contaminated water from the Gold King Mine into the Animas River–an accident which was predicted would happen so the EPA could use the crisis to seek more funding.

  This has not been a good year for the EPA but would the agency actually stoop to cheating and to contaminating water to further its agenda? That seems highly unlikely, I guess, until you think about NOAA and NASA changing the historical temperatures to make it appear as if the earth is warming when it is not in order to push its agenda, and until you think about the way the Obama regime used the IRS to shut down political opponents, and until you remember the Department of Injustice was running runs into Mexico in order to push a gun control agenda and UN small arms treaty in America. Then it just seems to be par for the course.

Malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium