EPA INSPECTOR GENERAL TO PROBE CLIMATE ROLLBACK
WASHINGTON» The Environmental Protection Agency’s internal watchdog said Monday it had opened an investigation into the agency’s weakening of Obama-era regulations that would have limited automobile emissions by significantly raising fuel economy standards.
The inspector general demanded that top EPA officials turn over briefing materials and other documents pertaining to the regulation, which was finalized in late March as the Trump administration’s single largest rollback of federal climate change rules.
Auditors said they intended to investigate whether the Trump administration acted “consistent with requirements, including those pertaining to transparency, recordkeeping, and docketing, and followed the EPA’s process for developing final regulatory actions.”
Just weeks before the final rule was published, the administration’s own internal analyses showed that it would create a higher cost for consumers than leaving the Obama-era standard in place and would contribute to more deaths associated with lung disease by releasing more pollution into the air.
“This is really serious,” said Vickie Patton, general counsel for the Environmental Defense Fund. “It’s rare for EPA’s inspector general to conduct an investigation of the agency’s rule-making.”
Multiple outside economists and public health experts have questioned the administration’s justification of the rule, saying its calculations do not stand up to rigorous independent analysis and calling on the administration to make public the formulas and economic models used to reach its conclusions.
James Hewitt, an EPA spokesman, said in a statement that the agency “will respond” to the inspector general “through the appropriate channels” and defended the new rule as “a sensible, single national program that strikes the right regulatory balance, protects our environment, and sets reasonable targets for the auto industry.”
The audit cites documents obtained and provided to investigators by Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, the ranking Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee.