By Jeff Dunetz

Ouch! That’s going to leave a scar!

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Gina McCarthy and the Republican Governor of Michigan Rick Snyder each testified about the Flint Michigan water crisis on Thursday before the House Committee On Oversight And Government Reform. When questioned by committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), Governor Snyder admitted mistakes and said that people responsible for the errors were fired. Ms. McCarthy arrogantly refused to acknowledge any EPA mistakes, provoking Chaffetz to “lose it” at the administrator - and call for her resignation.

The hearings addressed the EPA’s failure to take action immediately, after EPA Region 5 (which includes Michigan) regulations Manager Miguel Del Toral began to sound warnings after he visited Flint in February 2015, and followed with series of memos. The first memo was written in April 2015 indicating there were high lead-levels, but they didn’t know exactly where they were coming from. He said that water samples were being tested by Virginia Tech Professor Marc Edwards who should provide answers to the origin of the lead. The June 2015 memo contained professor Edwards’ report, which indicated where the water was being contaminated, as well as the seriousness of the problem.

The EPA, however, did not get involved until January 2016.

Sworn testimony earlier that same week at the Snyder/McCarthy hearings given by Marc Edwards indicated that Mr. Del Toral was afraid of pushing the issue because his superiors at the EPA might retaliate.

Mr. Edwards:  I do not think Ms. Hedman [Susan Hedman Mr. Del Toral’s boss] understands the climate she created at Region 5 EPA. Even before Mr. Del Toral wrote that memo, he told me that he had to protect Flint’s children while minimizing the likelihood he would be retaliated against.

Mr. Meadows:  Had he shared with you that he has been retaliated against? Is that your belief?

Mr. Edwards:  Well, I mean, obviously he was told not to talk to anyone in Flint or about Flint. A deal of some sort was made between EPA and MDEQ where MDEQ felt emboldened to say that “they had handled Mr. Del Toral.” That Flint residents would not be hearing from Mr. Del Toral again.

EPA’s Susan Hedman resigned of because of the Flint water crisis in January, 2016.

Adding fuel to the fire, on September 26, 2015, EPA Administrator McCarthy wrote an email to top EPA officials warning that the situation in Flint could “get very big quickly,” and “findings by university researchers and local doctors of high lead levels in the city’s water and in some children’s blood,” and still the EPA did nothing until January 2016. In other words, Rep. Chaffetz couldn’t have been pleased with Ms. McCarthy even before Thursday’s hearings.

Chaffetz began the hearings by calling the Del Toral memos “one of the more troubling things.”

It’s one of the more offensive, concerning things I’ve seen, that there were people = more than one that were making decisions and thinking, well maybe Flint isn’t who we should go out on a limb for.

But, the real fireworks began when it was Chairman Chaffetz’s turn to ask questions. The Utah congressman noted that, while the state has accepted responsibility and fired or suspended Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) employees involved in the Flint water crisis, the EPA fired no one and even called Susan Hedman’s resignation “courageous.”

McCarthy began to obfuscate by refusing to take any responsibility, giving what Chaffetz called a “cheap” response. The EPA head wouldn’t admit any wrongdoing, saying, “I don’t know if we did everything right. That’s the challenge that I’m facing. “I would have hoped we would have been more aggressive,” she added while claiming that she couldn’t act earlier because she didn’t have the information (despite Mr. Del Toral’s warnings).

Every time she tried to give an excuse, Chaffetz cut her off. And each time he cut her off it, seemed as if his temper was increasing.  Chaffetz snapped at her at one point, “You failed” Cutting off another McCarthy response, he added, “Don’t look around like you’re mystified! That’s what happened, Miguel Del Toral showed up in February, you didn’t take action, you didn’t.”

Chaffetz finished his time by chastising McCarthy as his voice got louder:

You want to do the courageous thing, like you said Susan Hedman did? Then you too should resign! Nobody’s going to believe that you had the opportunity, you had the presence, you had the authority. You had the backing of the federal government, and you did not act when you had the chance. And if you’re going to do the courageous thing you, too, should step down.

The full five minutes of Jason Chaffetz’s questioning is on the video below.

The Democrat says she would regulate fracking out of existence

Hillary Clinton keeps following Bernie Sanders further to the left, and on Sunday she all but declared herself opposed to America’s shale natural gas revolution. Even President Obama has tried to take credit for the domestic energy boom that has driven down the price of gas, home heating and more for Americans, but not Mrs. Clinton.

At Sunday’s debate in Flint, Michigan, a college student asked the candidates if they “support fracking?” Mrs. Clinton’s answer is worth running at length:

“You know, I don’t support it when any locality or any state is against it, number one. I don’t support it when the release of methane or contamination of water is present. I don’t support it - number three - unless we can require that anybody who fracks has to tell us exactly what chemicals they are using.

“So by the time we get through all of my conditions, I do not think there will be many places in America where fracking will continue to take place. And I think that’s the best approach, because right now, there are places where fracking is going on that are not sufficiently regulated.”

But the states regulate fracking so well that even the EPA hasn’t been able to find evidence of more than minor groundwater contamination. CNN’s Anderson Cooper then turned to Mr. Sanders, who replied: “My answer is a lot shorter. No, I do not support fracking.”

This is amazing. The average price of natural gas plummeted some 60% between 2008 and 2012 thanks to the fracking boom, and families saved $32 billion in 2012 through lower energy bills, according to Mercator Energy. The poor benefit most, as low-income families must spend more of their earnings on energy bills. Yet Democrats who profess to care for the poor want to disavow lower-cost energy.

This is a new look for Mrs. Clinton, who promoted fracking around the world as Secretary of State. In 2010 she popped into Krakow to announce a global shale initiative, and in 2012 she dropped by Bulgaria to encourage the parliament to end a fracking moratorium. But now that she wants to be President she would regulate out of existence the livelihoods of tens of thousands in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Arkansas, and across the U.S.A.

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The Blue States with strong green energy prices already has caused electricity to skyrocket. Exceptions are in hydro power rich Pacific Northwest. Europe is the model and their electricity is causing great suffering among the poor and pensioners.

Kevin Mooney

Congressional investigators have obtained an internal audit from George Mason University that suggests that one of its professors - a major proponent of man-made climate change -mismanaged millions of dollars in taxpayer money by “double dipping” in violation of university policy.

The professor, Jagadish Shukla, received $511,410 in combined compensation from George Mason University and his own taxpayer-funded climate change research center in 2014 alone, without receiving required permission from university officials, the audit found.

The audit looking at more than a decade of Shukla’s finances is disclosed in a letter sent this morning from Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, to the inspector general of the National Science Foundation.

“The committee’s investigation has revealed serious concerns related to Dr. Shukla’s management of taxpayer money,” Smith writes in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Daily Signal.

Since 2001, Shukla used his research center to pay himself and his wife more than $5.6 million in compensation, “an excessive amount for a nonprofit relying on taxpayer money,” Smith writes.

In the letter, Smith offers to assist Allison Lerner, the National Science Foundation’s inspector general, in any investigation she “may deem appropriate” in response to the GMU audit.

The Daily Signal previously reported that the Texas Republican began making inquiries last fall about reports that Shukla had received tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded grants to study climate change in addition to his publicly funded salary.

Shukla, 71, who specializes in atmospheric, oceanic, and earth studies at GMU, is also the founder and president of the Rockville, Md.-based Institute of Global Environment and Society, or IGES, a nonprofit outfit that is now the focus of congressional scrutiny.

Smith writes:

IGES has apparently received $63 million from taxpayer funded grants since 2001, comprising over 98 percent of its total revenue. These grants were awarded by the NSF [National Science Foundation], National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).  Since 2001, as president of IGES, Dr. Shukla appears to have paid himself and his wife a total of $5.6 million in compensation - an excessive amount for a nonprofit relying on taxpayer money. This information raises serious questions about Dr. Shukla’s financial management of IGES.

An environmental institute run by Jagadish Shukla is the beneficiary of more than $60 million in taxpayer funds.

The RICO 20

Steve McIntyre, a statistician noted for challenging the data and methodology used in United Nations reports on climate change, offers a detailed analysis of Shukla’s compensation and how it squares with university and government policies in his Climate Audit blog.

The India-born Shukla, who joined the faculty of Fairfax, Va.-based George Mason University in 1993, drew a salary there of $314,000 by 2014, according to Climate Audit.

Smith also raised concerns about the relationship between Shukla’s “partisan political activity” and taxpayer funds in a letter he sent to the professor in October.

Shukla’s name appears on top of a list of 20 signers of a letter sent to President Barack Obama; Attorney General Loretta Lynch; and John Holdren, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy asking them to investigate corporations and other groups skeptical of climate change under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

Federal prosecutors typically use that law, known as RICO, to pursue organized crime.

Some who hold that man-made climate change is not established scientific fact say Shukla’s “RICO 20” letter essentially calls for the federal government to prosecute companies and scientists who dissent from the Obama administration’s views on climate change.

Lawmakers Urged to Question Taxpayer-Subsidized Climate Alarmists

However, signatories who spoke with The Daily Signal said they advocated RICO investigations only if it could be demonstrated that certain climate change skeptics had “knowingly deceived the public.”

No such RICO investigations appear to be under way. But by putting his signature at the top of the letter to Obama and Lynch, Shukla drew scrutiny and attention to his own activities.

Taxpayers ‘Picked Up the Tab’

In the new letter, Smith details key findings of the George Mason University audit. He writes:

It appears IGES may have improperly commingled taxpayer funds with private charitable contributions when it shifted $100,000 to an education charity in India founded by Dr. Shukla, the Institute of Global Education Equality of Opportunity and Prosperity Inc.  This raises concerns that taxpayer money intended to be used for climate research was redirected to an overseas organization favored by Dr. Shukla.

The Texas Republican adds:

The recent audit conducted by GMU appears to reveal that Dr. Shukla engaged in what is referred to as ‘double dipping.’ In other words, he received his full salary at GMU, while working full time at IGES and receiving a full salary there. This practice may have violated GMU’s university policy, his employment contract with the university, and Virginia state law.

For example, according to GMU’s Faculty Handbook, ‘outside employment and paid consulting cannot exceed the equivalent of one day per work week without written authorization from the collegiate dean or institute director.’ Dr. Shukla violated this policy [in] five different time periods from 2003 to 2015 because he failed to receive approval for paid consulting in excess of one day per week. This allowed Dr. Shukla to double dip by receiving his full salary from GMU while receiving an excessive salary for working 28 hours per week at IGES.

In another instance, in 2014, Dr. Shukla received $292,688 in compensation from IGES for working 28 hours per week while simultaneously receiving 100 percent of his GMU salary.  In total, Dr. Shukla received $511,410 in compensation from IGES and GMU during 2014, without ever receiving the appropriate permission from GMU officials, apparently violating university policy.

Instead of serving the public interest with his nonprofit research center on climate change, Smith concludes in the letter, Shukla put taxpayers in a position where they “picked up the tab for excessive double dipping salaries, nepotism, and questionable money transfers.”

‘Serious Risks’

“The irony here is over the top,” said Marlo Lewis Jr., a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute who writes on global warming and energy policy, among other issues.

“First, Shukla appears to have made millions from taxpayers through funding improprieties,” Lewis said. “But Shukla also led the call for a RICO investigation of organizations challenging climate orthodoxy - a campaign which his co-ringleader at GMU (Fast-Eddie Maibach?) admits aims to impose financial penalties on political opponents while yielding payouts to further underwrite the climate alarm movement.”

Last year, CEI asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate Shukla’s nonprofit research center, the one now the subject of the House probe.

“We hope Congress’s progress spurs the IRS to turn a serious eye to our November complaint,” Lewis said, adding:

Shukla and his comrades… accuse fossil fuel companies of hiding climate risks from the American people, an impossible offense given the billions in annual government, pressure group, and media spending on climate advocacy. Yet, they refuse to acknowledge that their agenda, which would put an energy-starved world on an energy diet, poses serious risks to the world’s people, especially the poorest of the poor. By hiding climate policy risk, Shukla and his allies have deceived the American people. By his own logic, he should be the target of a RICO investigation.

This report has been updated to include the comments from Marlo Lewis Jr.