Somewhat tamed by the Trump administration, the Environmental Protection Agency has gained a new lease on power under President Biden, according to a new report that says the agency has so much cash coming in that it can’t be properly audited for waste and fraud.
OpenTheBooks.com, a watchdog group, said the EPA is on a spending and hiring spree, fueled by more than $100 billion in new long-term money Mr. Biden and the Democrat-led Congress pumped into the agency over the previous two years.
The result is an agency looking to staff up and carry out Mr. Biden’s hefty climate change wish list.
“President Biden and Congress have placed the agency at the fore of their ‘justice’ agenda and energy transition plans with massive cash infusions and new regulatory mandates,” said Adam Andrzejewski, founder of OpenTheBooks.
Among the findings of the report, released Wednesday morning, are:
• The average EPA salary is $124,252, and 77% of the agency’s employees make more than $100,000 a year.
• The EPA employs 223 public affairs officers.
• 137 EPA employees are special federal agents, meaning they have arrest powers and are authorized to carry guns.
OpenTheBooks pointed to congressional testimony from the EPA’s inspector general earlier this year saying the agency’s cash infusion is so large that it will be difficult to audit the $40 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act without dedicated oversight funds.
Mr. Andrzejewski called that a sobering admonition.
“We’re used to post-facto reports about government waste and fraud, as with COVID-related spending. But to be told it could be disproportionately wasteful at the outset is a stunning admission,” he said.
In terms of policy, the Biden administration has restored the sue-and-settle practice that saw environmental groups sue the EPA, which rather than fight in court entered into negotiations and reached a settlement to give the environmentalists at least some of what they wanted.
It is seen as a roundabout way for agencies to change policy on the cheap, without having to write regulations or get Congress to change the law.
OpenTheBooks says the practice soared in the Obama years, was curtailed under President Trump, and now has come roaring back under Mr. Biden, whose EPA revoked a Trump-era policy designed to limit sue-and-settle.
The result is that notices of intent to sue the EPA, which dipped below 40 a year in the Trump years, rose back to nearly 50 in 2022.
Congressional Republicans are trying to reel in the agency.
The spending bill winding its way through the GOP-led House would rescind $7.4 billion previously allocated to the EPA in last year’s budget-climate bill and intended for the agency’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. It would also cut the agency’s annual budget from roughly $10 billion this year to about $6 billion next year.
On policy, the legislation would block EPA proposals to use the social cost of carbon calculations in cost-benefit evaluations, would derail an attempt to expand regulatory reach to ditches and drain pipes and would rein in several other climate-related proposals.
Democrats blasted the bill.
“America’s ability to address the climate crisis will be completely debilitated,” said Rep. Chellie Pingree, Maine Democrat.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.