Ag Policy Blog

EPA Spokesperson: 'We Followed law on WOTUS'

Todd Neeley
By  Todd Neeley , DTN Staff Reporter
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In response to a New York Times' story Monday, http://tinyurl.com/…, that alleged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency may have violated lobbying laws when it used a grassroots social media campaign to generate support for the waters of the United States rule, an EPA spokesperson told DTN Tuesday the agency acted within the scope of the law.

In an email to DTN, EPA spokesperson Liz Purchia said the agency disagrees with how the Times portrayed the rulemaking efforts:

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"EPA is required to inform the public about environmental challenges we're working to address and our programs and operations. This includes using our broad authority under the Environmental Education Act as well as under many environmental statutes to conduct outreach and education. We use social media tools like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, just like any other organization does to stay connected and inform people across the country about our activities.

"EPA has used social media to educate people about the importance of streams and wetlands and the importance of clarifying protection under the Clean Water Act. None of the social media activity ever asked for or solicited public comment on the rule or provided a link to the official docket for public comment. These communications simply directed the recipient to the general webpage about the Clean Water Rule. Every stakeholder and every stakeholder group -- whether they supported or opposed the rule -- were provided the same link to the general webpage in education and outreach materials, emails, and presentations, and were told the deadline for submitting public comments and how to do so.

"The public outreach effort to increase awareness and support of EPA's proposed Clean Water Rule was also entirely legal under the Anti-Lobbying Act. This Act does not prohibit agencies from seeking input from the public on a rulemaking or restrict the agencies from educating or informing the public on a rulemaking under development. As noted in a recent Comptroller General opinion, 'agency officials have broad authority to educate the public on their policies and views, and this includes the authority to be persuasive in their materials.' B-325248, U.S. Comp. Gen., Sept. 9, 2014. See also B-319075, U.S. Comp. Gen., April 23, 2010, and B-304715, U.S. Comp. Gen., April 27, 2005.

"The EPA's effort to increase awareness and support of EPA's proposed Clean Water Rule was not related to any legislative proposal in Congress or any state legislatures. Rather, it related to the EPA’s own proposed rule and its importance to public health and the environment. And, at no point did the EPA—explicitly or implicitly—encourage the public to contact Congress or any state legislature.

"After releasing the proposed Clean Water Rule in March 2014, EPA conducted an unprecedented outreach effort that included holding more than 400 meetings across the country and visiting farms in nine states. The input helped us understand the genuine concerns and interests of a wide range of stakeholders and think through options to address them. As outlined in a recent blog by Administrator McCarthy, the key changes made to the proposed rule were actually driven in large part by outreach to agriculture, local government, states, and utilities. http://blog.epa.gov/…

Follow me on Twitter @toddneeleyDTN

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David Dolan
2/29/2016 | 1:52 AM CST
Changes? All changes are updated for Water rule or agriculture in Federal System. http://www.legisocial.fr