{"id":292235,"date":"2023-12-22T09:14:11","date_gmt":"2023-12-22T08:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=292235"},"modified":"2023-12-22T09:14:14","modified_gmt":"2023-12-22T08:14:14","slug":"exclusive-emails-show-biden-admin-coordinating-with-enviro-group-thats-suing-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=292235","title":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Emails Show Biden Admin Coordinating With Enviro Group That\u2019s Suing Them"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From The Daily Caller<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

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NICK POPE<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CONTRIBUTOR<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Biden administration communicated about changes to a landmark environmental law with a major eco-group that is suing the federal government over the law in question, emails obtained by the Functional Government Initiative (FGI) and shared exclusively with the Daily Caller News Foundation show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The emails, exchanged in May 2021, show that\u00a0Kristen Boyles<\/a>, a managing attorney for\u00a0Earthjustice<\/a>, contacted the Department of Justice (DOJ) to request information about the White House Council on Environmental Quality\u2019s (CEQ) forthcoming rulemakings on the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a decades-old environmental law. The communications occurred as Earthjustice was suing the Biden administration in an ongoing NEPA\u00a0lawsuit<\/a>\u00a0and show that President Joe Biden\u2019s CEQ was willing to provide at least some information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time of these communications, the Biden administration had not yet made public its specific proposal for the NEPA rulemakings. The administration published<\/a> the new rules in the Federal Register in October 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese emails certainly raise suspicions that there is some inappropriate conduct by the DOJ lawyer,\u201d Steve Milloy, a senior legal fellow for the Energy and Environment Legal Institute, told the DCNF. \u201cThat the information being privately provided to Earthjustice is then redacted in the FOIA request makes the exchange doubly suspicious.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NEPA has been one of the most important and contentious environmental laws on the books. Former President Richard Nixon signed it into law in 1970. The law dictates how federal agencies must assess potential ecological impacts of major projects, like new highways,\u00a0according<\/a>\u00a0to the Environmental Protection Agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NEPA is also the most frequently-litigated federal environmental statute, according<\/a> to the Congressional Research Service. Environmental groups often use NEPA lawsuits as a way to hold up energy projects they oppose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Trump CEQ\u00a0modernized<\/a>\u00a0NEPA to make it easier to build infrastructure projects in July 2020, reducing the rule\u2019s complexity and its vulnerability to excessive litigation. Earthjustice\u00a0filed<\/a>\u00a0a lawsuit that same month, alleging that the Trump CEQ had illegally overhauled the statute.\u00a0(RELATED: \u2018Sue And Settle\u2019: Biden Admin Agrees To Block Oil And Gas Drilling After Settling With Eco Activists)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n