House Energy & Commerce Leaders Concerned About Covert Propaganda on Climate Rules

House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Tim Murphy (R-PA), and Energy Subcommittee Chairman Ed Whitfield (R-KY) sent a letter to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy seeking information regarding the use of social media platforms by EPA to promote the agency’s climate rules. Recently, the nonpartisan watchdog Government Accountability Office (GAO) concluded that EPA had engaged in “covert propaganda” relating to its Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule through its use of Thunderclap, a “crowdspeaking platform,” in an effort to increase support for the rule. Additionally, the watchdog report indicated that EPA engaged in illegal grassroots lobbying and also found that EPA violated the Antideficiency Act when it obligated and expended appropriated funds for its propaganda and grassroots lobby efforts.

In the letter to Administrator McCarthy, the committee leaders write, “EPA’s actions potentially undermined the integrity of the rulemaking process concerning WOTUS, and call into question the use of social media to promote other rulemaking activity. For example, EPA undertook an extensive social media messaging campaign in support of its Clean Power Plan, authoring blog posts, and posting messages on Facebook and Twitter." The leaders also requested EPA provide all Clean Power Plan social media and web postings, communications related to EPA’s social media and web postings on the Clean Power Plan, and an accounting of federal funds spent by EPA on soliciting comments in support of Clean Power Plan. The members also requested that the agency “certify in writing that EPA has not engaged in covert propaganda or grassroots lobbying when promoting the Clean Power Plan.”