{"id":3037,"date":"2012-12-13T18:59:30","date_gmt":"2012-12-14T00:59:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/?p=3037"},"modified":"2012-12-13T19:11:26","modified_gmt":"2012-12-14T01:11:26","slug":"indianas-environmental-chief-easterly-advises-coal-utilities-on-delaying-greenhouse-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/?p=3037","title":{"rendered":"Indiana’s Environmental Chief Easterly advises coal utilities on delaying greenhouse rules."},"content":{"rendered":"

December 13, 2012 – by PR Watch Staff at prwatch.org<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

You’re probably familiar with the old “fox in the hen house” story,\u00a0but what about when a hen joins the fox den?\"Something's<\/a><\/em>This is the case with the recent\u00a0American Legislative Exchange Council<\/strong>\u00a0(ALEC<\/a>) meeting in Washington, DC.\u00a0Leaked documents<\/a>\u00a0obtained by Greenpeace reveal that ALEC’s anti-environmental jamboree was inundated with coal money and featured an\u00a0Indiana regulator advising coal utilities on delaying US Environmental Protection Agency rules to control greenhouse gas emissions<\/strong>\u00a0and hazardous air pollution.<\/p>\n

\"Tom<\/a>

Tom Easterly has never acted in the interests of Indiana citizens. Instead, he counsels polluters on how to get around the rules in Indiana and elsewhere.<\/p><\/div>\n

Click to view contents of the ACCCE USB drive from ALEC’s 2012 States & Nation Policy summit.At\u00a0ALEC’s coal-sponsored meeting<\/a>, where state legislators and corporate representatives meet to create template state laws ranging from attacks on clean energy to privatization of public schools, Indiana’s Commissioner of the\u00a0Department of Environmental Management<\/a>\u00a0Tom Easterly<\/strong>\u00a0laid out a plan to stall the US EPA global warming action in a power point clearly addressed to coal industry representatives at ALEC’s meeting.<\/p>\n

In a\u00a0USB drive<\/a>\u00a0branded with the logo of the\u00a0American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity<\/a>\u00a0(ACCCE), a folder labeled “Easterly” contains a presentation titled “Easterly ALEC presentation 11 28 12<\/a>” explaining current EPA air pollution rules and how Tom Easterly has worked to obstruct them. The power points is branded with the Indiana Department of Environmental Protection seal. In the latter presentation, Easterly ended his briefing to ALEC’s dirty energy members with suggestions for delaying EPA regulation of greenhouse gas emissions at coal plants.<\/p>\n

Easterly’s presentation, which is\u00a0posted<\/a>\u00a0on his Indiana Dept. of Environmental Mgmt commissioner webpage, even offered a template state resolution that would burden EPA with conducting a number of unnecessary cost benefit analyses (which the federal government has done through theSocial Cost of Carbon analysis<\/a>) in the process of controlling GHG emissions.<\/p>\n

Click to see Tom Easterly’s full ALEC presentation<\/a>The\u00a0template resolution Easterly presented<\/a>\u00a0to ALEC was created by the Environmental Council of States (ECOS), a group of state regulators that create template state resolutions similar to ALEC, often with overlapping agendas that benefit coal companies. ECOS has some questionable template state resolutions for an “Environmental” organization, including a resolution\u00a0urging EPA not to classify coal ash as “hazardous.”<\/a>Although its less regulated than household trash,\u00a0coal ash contains neurotoxins, carcinogens and radioactive elements<\/strong>\u00a0and is stored in dangerous slurry “ponds” that can leak these dangerous toxins into our waterways.<\/p>\n

\"Fish-Hg\"<\/a><\/strong>ECOS’ work is sponsored by the coal fronts like ACCCE and the Edison Electric Institute (EEI)<\/strong>, both sponsors of the ALEC meeting where Easterly presented the ECOS model resolution. See clean air watchdog\u00a0Frank O’Donnell’s blog on ECOS<\/a>\u00a0for more.<\/p>\n

Easterly’s work, including his presentation to ALEC, is also\u00a0promoted<\/a>\u00a0by the Midwest Ozone Group, a group whose\u00a0members<\/a>\u00a0include ACCCE, American Electric Power and\u00a0Duke Energy<\/strong><\/a>.\"Easterly\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Commissioner Tom Easterly’s suggestion of burdening EPA with tasks beyond its responsibility is concerning, as is his ongoing campaign to discredit the science of global warming–something he doesn’t have the scientific qualifications to do. To this end, the Indiana regulator fits nicely into the coal industry’s long history of denying problems they don’t want to be held accountable for and delaying solutions to those problems. The same processes applied to acid rain, a problem the coal industry also denied for years–check out\u00a0Greenpeace’s collection of\u00a0Coal Ads: Decades of Deception<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Climate Science Denial at Indiana’s Department of Environmental Management<\/h2>\n

Even before Indiana’s top enforcer of federal and state environmental regulations was\u00a0advising coal companies on how to continuing polluting our air and water<\/strong>, it appears that\u00a0denial of basic climate science<\/strong>\u00a0was the state’s official position on global warming–Indiana’s 2011 “State of the Environment<\/a>” report rehashes tired\u00a0climate denier arguments<\/a>\u00a0such as global temperature records having “no appreciable change since about 1998.” (see\u00a0why this is a lie<\/a>) and referencing the “medieval warm period” as false proof that current temperature anomalies are normal (they aren’t,\u00a0see Skeptical Science for a proper debunking<\/a>). Similar arguments have apparently been presented by the Indiana government to ALEC since 2008–the ACCCE USB drive contains another\u00a0Indiana power point created in 2008 full of junk climate “science.”<\/a>\u00a0This level of scientific illiteracy is concerning, especially for the regulatory body responsible for overseeing pollution controls for the coal industry.<\/p>\n

Remember, this isn’t the\u00a0Heartland Institute<\/a>. It’s the State of Indiana….working with the Heartland Institute, a member of ALEC’s anti-environmental task force that has been central in coordinating campaigns to deny global warming. See Commissioner Easterly’s full\u00a0presentation to ALEC on climate “science.”<\/a><\/p>\n

ALEC States & Nation Policy Summit 2012: brought to you by King Coal<\/h2>\n

ALEC Sponsors at DC meeting Nov 2012<\/a>ALEC’s brochure for last week’s meeting shows a disproportionately large presence of coal sponsors. The brochure lists 14 sponsors, five of which are coal interests:<\/p>\n