Senator: Emails Reveal EPA, Green Group in ‘Beyond Cozy’ Relationship” Written by Reid Rosenthal on October 17, 2014 · Have a comment? No Laughing matter? EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy gets a kick out of something President Obama says at the June 2 announcement of the carbon plan. (Photo: Pete Souza/White House) Republican lawmakers say the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency enjoys a “beyond cozy” relationship with a liberal environmental action group that seeks to reshape national energy policies in a way that would hurt American businesses and families. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., the top Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee, told The Daily Signal that the Natural Resources Defense Council played an “absolutely inappropriate” role in drafting the EPA’s new carbon emissions plan. “The EPA has been one of the least transparent agencies I have ever seen, but it’s become apparent that their lack of transparency is to hide the influence that an organization so heavily focused on undermining U.S. businesses and families has at EPA,” Vitter said. Vitter and House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., have directed staff to look into whether the EPA broke federal law in developing the carbon emissions regulations. Newly released emails between the EPA and the green group, Vitter said, show that the agency didn’t push to “consider all stakeholders’ opinions equally.” He added: While both sides have denied NRDC’s improper influence over the EPA’s development of the carbon rule, these emails clearly demonstrate their beyond-cozy relationship and force the question: Who is working for whom? Vitter was referring to the EPA’s rebuttal of allegations by GOP lawmakers that the Natural Resources Defense Council, a New York-based international environmental organization, had an outsized influence on the agency’s proposed rule to limit carbon emissions at existing power plants. The emails surfaced after a joint request last month to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy by Vitter, Issa and four other Republican lawmakers. Nick Loris, a Heritage Foundation economist who focuses on energy and the environment, calls the Obama administration’s new carbon rules “nothing short of an attack on affordable, reliable energy.” Claiming 1.4 million members and online activists, the Natural Resources Defense Council lobbies and litigates for “curbing global warming” and “creating the clean energy future,” among other issues. The organization, founded in 1978, has received $1.9 million in EPA grants since January 2009. continue reading here.