WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) questioned Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy about recent energy-job losses in Wyoming and the EPA’s unacceptable response to the Gold King Mine spill.
McCarthy was testifying before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee regarding the EPA’s budget request for Fiscal Year 2017.
On EPA’s Role in Recent Energy Job Losses in Wyoming:
“I want to switch topics to the more than 2,400 jobs that have been lost in the energy sector in Wyoming since January.
“They are good paying jobs with benefits that provide for Wyoming families.
“You stated before the Environmental Council of the States on April 13 of this year that ‘I can’t find one single bit of evidence that we have destroyed an industry or significantly impacted jobs other than in a positive way.’ That’s your quote.
“I don’t know what you are talking about.
“I hear it every day back in my state in Wyoming, heard it this weekend, how EPA regulations are destroying the coal industry.
“Your regulations are costing jobs.
“Are you going to tell the laid off coal miners in Wyoming and West Virginia, and Kentucky that you take no responsibility whatsoever for what is happening in coal country?
Follow up:
“So based on your quote of April 13, you are saying you’re not responsible for even one job loss in the coal industry?
“Mr. Chairman I’ll point out that 2,400 jobs have been lost in the energy sector in Wyoming since January and I believe it’s directly a result of the EPA actions.
Click here for video of Sen. Barrasso questioning Admin. McCarthy on WY Energy Job Losses
On EPA’s Unacceptable Response to Gold King Mine Spill:
“There was an April 7th Wall Street Journal story ‘Toxic Spill Fears Haunt Southwest.’ This has to do with the spill about six months ago, the EPA crew accidentally caused, where you unleashed waste at a gold mine, the spring snowmelt as it says, threatens to stir up pollutants.
“So the people in the area are concerned that as the snow melts and comes down. The article talks about a 46 year old oil field worker about the contamination.
“It says the ‘EPA hasn’t returned to conduct more tests, and now Mr. Dils and others are worried that lead and other toxic materials that settled in the river will be stirred up’ and just to remind folks, this is the one you’ve seen the picture of the orange colored river, three million gallons of toxic material that poured into that river.
“So he said they’re worried that these toxic chemicals will be stirred up, contaminate the river again, as the Animas swells with spring snowmelt from the Rocky Mountains.
“So he says, ‘I’m nervous about the long-term effects,’ he says. ‘It will be a matter of testing our well continuously, but we don’t have money for that.’
“So in your oral testimony before the Indian Affairs committee, specifically related to that toxic spill, you stated that the EPA water results – in your words – ‘indicated that water and sediment have returned to pre-event conditions.’
“This gives, I believe, an incomplete picture of the long term impacts of this EPA-caused environmental disaster.
“People in the area are referring to the EPA and they’re saying EPA stands for the Environmental Polluting Agency, the Environmental Poisoning Agency.
“As Senator Boxer has just said, look at the faces of those who were poisoned. This is murder. This is Barbara Boxer’s quote about what happens when people are poisoned. She a little earlier said, ‘this is murder.’ And that’s the way people in the area feel about what has happened.
“Communities want to know if their families will be safe as a result of the disaster that the EPA has caused, and you said will take responsibility for.
“They need money for testing, and what EPA has offered in terms of technical support and long-term monitoring isn’t nearly enough.
“So when the Indian tribes impacted wanted a follow-up hearing to examine these issues, specifically in that location, at first the EPA refused to even send a witness to testify in person. The hearing’s going to be this Friday, Earth Day.
“Instead, the EPA offered only written testimony.
“As a result, the Senate Indian Affairs Committee has had to issue a subpoena – something that the Indian Affairs committee haven’t has to do since the Jack Abramoff scandal.
“That puts you and the EPA in a very exclusive club. And it shouldn’t have happened. This is a bipartisan subpoena.
“We’re holding this field hearing to do oversight into this catastrophe that the EPA has caused.
“So the Indian Affairs Committee, both Democrat and Republican Senators, have now given you or EPA Assistant Administrator Stanislaus, an opportunity to testify at the field hearing Friday in person.
“So my question is, this Friday, are you planning to go to New York for the signing of the Paris Climate Agreement, stay here, or will you take this opportunity to face the people – the Navajo Nation and other tribes whose communities were poisoned, and commit to them, as well as all the affected communities of this spill, the people who were poisoned, that you will provide them with the testing and the funding they actually need to assure that their families will be safe?
Follow Up:
“So you have been subpoenaed as a result of the EPA’s decision to send no one, so we named you and Stanislaus—either or—so my question is, does the buck stop with you or with Mr. Stanislaus?”
Click here for video of Sen. Barrasso questioning EPA Admin McCarthy on Gold King Mine Spill
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