Emails Reveal EPA Imposing ‘Progressive National Policy

Newly revealed emails show Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials discussing their excitement about being “at the forefront of progressive national policy on one of the critical issues of our time.” Email exchanges between EPA chief Lisa Jackson and former EPA policy office head Lisa Heinzerling show the process behind the agency’s controversial decision to begin regulating “greenhouse gases,” according to the Daily Caller.

“You are at the forefront of progressive national policy on one of the critical issues of our time. Do you realize that?” former EPA chief Lisa Jackson asked former EPA policy office head Lisa Heinzerling in a Feb. 27, 2009 email.

“You’re a good boss. I do realize that. I pinch myself all the time,” Heinzerling replied that same day to Jackson, who was using an alias email account under the fake name “Richard Windsor.”

The Competitive Enterprise Institute, who originally obtained the communications, says the emails expose the agenda behind the regulations.

“This is not about climate,” CEI senior fellow Chris Horner told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “This is the progressive agenda.”

“Our laws don’t always shine to being used as pretenses for ideological agendas; this is plainly in the name of climate, but Obama has said it is to finally make renewables profitable,” Horner added.

The exchanges are not the first time that EPA officials have admitted their regulations on carbon emissions are not necessarily about the pollution.

“The great thing about this proposal is that it really is an investment opportunity,” current EPA chief Gina McCarthy told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in July. ”This is not about pollution control.”

However, there is no indication that the EPA will abandon it’s controversial carbon regulations.

This past summer, the EPA doubled down on its power plant regulating binge and proposed greenhouse gas emissions limits for power plants already in operation. The rule has been extremely controversial, with opponents saying it will raise electricity prices and force more power plants to shut down.

“The EPA’s war on coal has troubling economic implications for every American and U.S. business,” wrote Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Mike Kelly in The Wall Street Journal. “As the new regulations take effect, Americans could see their electric bills increase annually by more than 10 percent — $150 for the average consumer — by the end of the decade.”