Upton, Murphy, Whitfield request information on EPA’s use of social media for Clean Power Plan

U.S. Reps. Fred Upton (R-MI), Tim Murphy (R-PA) and Ed Whitfield (R-KY), who chair the Energy and Commerce Committee, Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, and Energy and Power Subcommittee, respectively, recently sent a letter to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy on the agency’s use of social media.

“EPA’s actions potentially undermined the integrity of the rulemaking process concerning WOTUS [Waters of the United States], and call into question the use of social media to promote other rulemaking activity,” said the letter. “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 agency also used one of its primary Clean Power Plan hashtags (#ActOnClimate) in another Thunderclap campaign that potentially reached over 2.6 million individuals.”

The congressmen used the letter to request all EPA social media and online activities related to the Clean Power Plan and how the agency used federal funding when seeking public comments on the regulation be provided to them.

“EPA getting busted for its illegal propaganda and lobbying on the WOTUS rule raises serious red flags, and we want to know if these shenanigans extended to the climate rules,” Upton said. “EPA took an aggressive approach with respect to its climate rules and we want to ensure that EPA did not violate the law promoting these rules. The bottom line is EPA betrayed the public trust.”