Busted: EPA Chief, Largest PR Firm Caught Lying About Coal

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy speaks during an intervi
Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

If nothing else, the Paris climate conference exposes EPA chief Gina McCarthy and the world’s largest public relations firm for the phonies they are.

In a Facebook posting this week, EPA chief McCarthy: “We know in the U.S. that we are transitioning away from coal because coal is no longer marketable.”

But that is news to the U.S. public and Congress, especially coming from her.

At her April 2103 Senate confirmation hearing, Sen. Jim Inhofe reminded her of her prior statements supporting a future for coal and asked if he had changed her mind. She replied, “Not at all, Senator.”

In September 2013 testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee about Obama’s war on coal, McCarthy stated, “We believe coal will continue to represent a significant portion of the energy supply in the decades to come.”

In a July 2014 interview on West Virginia Public Radio, McCarthy said, “You’ll see that the states that are heavily coal generation now will remain heavily coal generation in the future.”

And those are just a few examples of McCarthy’s misleading, if not outright falsehoods, about the future of coal in the U.S.

In September, Edelman touted that it would no longer work for coal companies or climate “deniers” because they represented, according to the UK paper The Guardian, a threat to its reputation and bottom line.

“On climate denial and coal those are where we just said this is absolutely a no-go area,” Edelman’s president told The Guardian. “To simply try and carve out carbon production from the overall energy mix in one fell swoop is just not part of the mainstream discourse, and not something we considered. Right now the only categorical exclusion we have is on climate denial and coal.”

But this week, the New York Times reported that Edelman is at the Paris COP-21 climate conference working on behalf of the government of India.

While this sounds innocent enough, not only is India openly one of the major roadblocks to any sort of treaty to cut carbon dioxide emissions – which would seem to violate the spirit of Edelman’s green vows — India is also the 100 percent owner of Coal India, the world’s largest single coal producer.

So by working for India, Edelman is also representing the interests of Coal India.

As that old saw goes: How do you know greens are lying? They’re moving their lips.

Steve Milloy publishes JunkScience.com (Twitter: @JunkScience)

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.