Biden Admin

This WaPo piece today is more notable for the context in which the violations come than the violations themselves, and recalls GAO’s previous caution: The inquiry reported immediately above was into something completely different, “contact between the agency’s top air official and Harvard University, his former employer.” GAO noted, on numerous occasions, Mr. Goffman’s approach to applicable legal limitations. These…

GAO had occasion to read the USEPA’s brief filed in the D.C. Circuit in Commonwealth of Kentucky v. EPA, a matter in which over half the states have sued the Agency challenging its decision to suddenly and dramatically tighten a primary National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for soot. This rule was pre-announced in March 2022 as one of the…

GAO has discerned some possible further politicking with and (surprise!) pen-and-a-phone scheming within the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid. Further cross-checks are underway to confirm whether what appears to be is in fact the case but, for the moment, GAO is refreshing this post with more, recent document productions from CMS, here, here and here. Previously, GAO posted: See here for updates…

Sources say January 2024 “pause” to study the impacts of LNG exports is based on a fib; that the macroeconomic study was in fact already produced, in 2023, but gave ‘wrong’ answer and was buried Today, Government Accountability & Oversight (GAO) filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Department of Energy, over DoE’s failure to provide even the…

GAO has filed a motion in one of it’s federal FOIA cases styled as GAO v SEC (23-3268), in which it points out various findings about that “independent Commission’s” ideological advocacy as part of the Biden administration’s “whole of government” approach to imposing a never-enacted “climate” agenda. Items noted include: Background relating to the FOIA request that was at issue…

President Biden has nominated former Massachusetts Undersecretary of Energy and Climate Solutions, Judy Chang, to be a FERC Commissioner. Ms. Chang is possibly best well-known for a 2018 comment staking out the position that because New England would move away from natural gas within the next five years it was irresponsible to invest in pipelines. At the time—let alone six…

The case against this abuse has been building for some time. Following up on the details summarized in this Wall Street Journal editorial in the Spring of 2021, this op-ed last summer, and this post announcing GAO’s amicus brief in Kentucky et al. v. EPA et al., late last week the Journal ran an editorial by attorney for GAO Chris Horner…

Today, April 25, 2024, the Biden Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized its unconstitutional “suite of rules” being imposed to force premature retirement of politically disfavored sources of electricity generation. Also, GAO just obtained a copy of this letter to the EPA. It turns out the pressure groups really, really wanted the Agency to make sure to “finalize and implement the strongest…

“Whole of government,” backdoor “climate” agenda placed before D.C. Circuit “To believe the Administrator’s own words, or not to believe—that is the question.” April 5, 2024: This morning, Government Accountability & Oversight (GAO) filed an Amicus Brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Commonwealth of Kentucky, et al., v. EPA. The brief sets forth how…

Following on this item, we see The Hayride has an in-depth followup on GAO’s findings regarding donor financing behind the current administration’s—and progressive state officials’—push to suppress access to affordable and abundant, reliable energy.

See here for updates on CMS political coordination with the White House as covered in the Wall Street Journal and other publications. UPDATE: April 15, 2024 production is here. UPDATE: April 22, 2024 production is here. UPDATE: April 29, 2024 production is here. UPDATE: April 30, 2024 production is here. UPDATE: May 15, 2024 production is here. UPDATE: May 21,…

Further on GAO’s recent post “FOIA’d Emails Suggest More Biden Administration Politicking with Federal Programs,” and records all available here, today’s Wall Street Journal has an oped by former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, “How Biden’s CMS Targeted Florida: An example of using government power to attack political foes.” The piece is paywalled but, as the title suggests, it focuses on…

National Review has an article today covering GAO findings in Freedom of Information Act litigation. The article refers back to document productions in FOIA litigation available at this post, which is being regularly updated as more records come in. UPDATE IV: Most (97%, more than usual) records in a January 22, 2024 production were referred to the White House for…

As reported here today:

This document just released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency takes the cake. Particularly on the heels of this email from a well-placed (and he wants you to know it!) Washington lawyer to his alma mater, UCLA Law School. Lookie here:  

GAO’s work to examine the deployment of federal programs and agencies toward political ends—and how it comes about—has come across what seems to be yet another example of agency capture. Whenever an initiative quashed by a previous administration gets revived once those who killed it are no longer around to supervise, it warrants transparency. Ditto when agencies appear to single…

Readers may recall the March 17, 2021 WSJ editorial nicely summarizing a February 2021 amicus brief filed on behalf of Energy Policy Advocates in State of New York v. EPA. That is the progressive AGs’ effort to orchestrate a sue-and-settle to impose stronger ozone standards as a means of forcing GHG reductions. (It is fair to view that move as the Patient Zero of what has emerged…

InsideEPA reports on some For Us, By Us nuttery representing the Left’s “some are more equal than others” view of the public seeking equal rights to access public records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).   As this email obtained in GAO v. Regents affirms, it is also precisely the brand of crackpottery an insider whispered, around inauguration time,…

An item in Forbes today writes about a recent Consumers’ Research study that heavily cites GAO, some of which is also linked to by the writer. As noted in today’s summary: Read the story here, and the whole report here.