A former senior EPA official known for coordinating with environmentalists slammed the White House for pushing back on agency plans to regulate hydraulic fracturing for oil and natural gas, text messages show.
Michael Goo, EPA’s policy chief at the time, texted Sierra Club lobbyist John Coequyt that if environmentalists “want any hope of regulation of fracking then give us more time to try and remove the gun from our head and talk sense into OMB dickheads.”
“If you want the oil and gas nsps to give fracking a free pass, as OMB would like then don’t give us the extension,” Goo texted Coequyt, referring to proposed EPA New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for oil and gas fracking, according to The Washington Free Beacon. OMB refers to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget.
The texts were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by the Energy and Environment Legal Institute (EELI). This is the latest EELI release from the Goo files. Previous email releases show how Goo used his private Yahoo email account to coordinate with environmental activists.
In February, EELI released a report claiming EPA is a “captured” agency “allowing green pressure groups improper influence.”
“Specifically, Michael Goo, then EPA’s Associate Administrator for the Office of Policy, was tasked with writing the initial memo on EPA’s options to impose these power plant regulations,” EELI reported. “Mr. Goo shared his draft options secretly, using his private email rather than his official EPA email, with lobbyists and high-level staffers at the Sierra Club, Clean Air Task Force and the Natural Resource Defense Council; also using Goo’s non-official account, these lobbyists in turn told Goo how to draft or alter the policy that was ultimately implemented in the rules.”
Goo was also known for his raging parties, which he dubbed “Goofest.” Emails obtained by Fox News in 2015 show Goofest even featured an “ice luge” for taking shots.
EELI’s latest release shows the internal rift in the Obama administration over how to regulate fracking. Top officials praised natural gas fracking for lowering U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, but environmentalists lobbied federal agencies to clamp down on drilling.
The Free Beacon notes Goo sent the text the same day EPA and environmentalists reached a legal settlement to postpone issuing new global warming regulations for fracking operations.
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Michael Bastasch is a contributer for the Daily Caller. This content was provided by the Daily Caller News Foundation