Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • Coalition Letter Opposing Goffman Confirmation To EPA Asst Administrator, Air, Final, 26-7-2022

    Uploaded by

    Gabe Kaminsky
    5K views4 pages
    The document is a letter signed by various organizations and individuals opposing the confirmation of Joseph Goffman as EPA's Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation. It argues that Goffman played a key role in developing controversial Clean Air Act rules during the Obama administration that were economically damaging and legally dubious. It cites examples like the Mercury and Air Toxins Standards Rule that forced hundreds of coal plant closures and job losses. The letter contends Goffman continues to improperly expand the EPA's regulatory authority and should not be confirmed to head the Office of Air and Radiation.

    Original Description:

    OBTAINED BY THE DCNF

    Original Title

    Coalition Letter Opposing Goffman Confirmation to EPA Asst Administrator, Air, Final, 26-7-2022

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Report this Document
    The document is a letter signed by various organizations and individuals opposing the confirmation of Joseph Goffman as EPA's Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation. It argues that Goffman played a key role in developing controversial Clean Air Act rules during the Obama administration that were economically damaging and legally dubious. It cites examples like the Mercury and Air Toxins Standards Rule that forced hundreds of coal plant closures and job losses. The letter contends Goffman continues to improperly expand the EPA's regulatory authority and should not be confirmed to head the Office of Air and Radiation.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    Download as pdf or txt
    5K views4 pages

    Coalition Letter Opposing Goffman Confirmation To EPA Asst Administrator, Air, Final, 26-7-2022

    Uploaded by

    Gabe Kaminsky
    The document is a letter signed by various organizations and individuals opposing the confirmation of Joseph Goffman as EPA's Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation. It argues that Goffman played a key role in developing controversial Clean Air Act rules during the Obama administration that were economically damaging and legally dubious. It cites examples like the Mercury and Air Toxins Standards Rule that forced hundreds of coal plant closures and job losses. The letter contends Goffman continues to improperly expand the EPA's regulatory authority and should not be confirmed to head the Office of Air and Radiation.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 4

    Washington, DC

    26th July 2022

    A Coalition Letter Opposing the Confirmation of Joseph Goffman


    as EPA’s Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation

    Dear Chairman Carper, Ranking Member Capito, and Members of the Senate
    Committee on Environment and Public Works:

    The undersigned organizations and individuals write to express and explain our
    opposition to the confirmation of Joseph Goffman as Assistant Administrator for Air
    and Radiation in the Environmental Protection Agency.

    Mr. Goffman served in the EPA’s Air and Radiation Office during the Obama
    administration as Senior Counsel 2009-17 and in addition as Associate Assistant
    Administrator for Climate 2013-17. During that time he was a participant in, and often
    the key architect of, a number of highly controversial, legally suspect, and economically
    damaging Clean Air Act rules and decisions, including the 2009 Endangerment Finding,
    the 2010 and 2012 greenhouse gas emissions rule for cars and light trucks and
    associated 2009 California waiver, the 2011 Mercury and Air Toxins Standards Rule
    (MATS Rule), the 2011 Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, the 2015 “Clean Power” Plan
    (CPP), and the replacement of an unprecedented number of State Implementation Plans
    under the Regional Haze Rule with more expensive Federal Implementation Plans. As
    Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Biden administration, Mr. Goffman has
    revived and advanced many of the problematic decisions he helped make in the Obama
    administration.

    The MATS Rule, for example, forced electric utilities to close hundreds of coal-fired
    power plants and indirectly devastated the coal mining industry and destroyed
    thousands of mining jobs. The EPA’s own estimates at the time found that the costs
    would outweigh the direct benefits by between 1600 to 1 and 2400 to 1. The alleged
    collateral benefits of billions of dollars used to justify the rule are highly dubious at
    best. Mr. Goffman was a key player in developing this economically disastrous rule.

    Mr. Goffman was also a key player in writing the “Clean Power” Plan. In 2016, the
    Supreme Court imposed an unprecedented stay in implementing the rule because of its
    dubious legality; and on 30th June 2022, the Supreme Court in a 6 to 3 decision ruled
    emphatically that the CPP exceeded the EPA’s authority under the Clean Air Act.
    Between the Obama and Biden administrations, Mr. Goffman served as executive
    director of the Environmental Law Program at the Harvard University Law School. A
    profile published in Harvard Law Today on 2nd October 2017 approvingly repeated a
    description of Mr. Goffman as a “law whisperer” because “his specialty is teaching an
    old law to do new tricks.”

    E-mails and other documents produced by federal and state freedom of information
    requests have revealed that Mr. Goffman continued as a law whisperer at Harvard Law,
    where he worked with a number of State Attorneys General to file suit to require the
    EPA to set a secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standard for ozone that would
    target the causes of climate change—that is, greenhouse gas emissions—on the grounds
    that climate change will raise ozone levels. Incredibly, despite Mr. Goffman’s
    leadership in concocting this scheme, he has been in charge of the EPA’s response to the
    suit (State of NY et al. v EPA), which could result in a “sue-and-settle” agreement.

    It is not surprising that President Biden nominated Mr. Goffman to head the EPA’s
    Office of Air and Radiation. The Biden administration is trying to achieve its climate
    and anti-energy agenda primarily through gross administrative over-reach, and Mr.
    Goffman has proven to be a master of administrative over-reach. We oppose his
    confirmation for this very reason. His regulatory decisions in the Obama EPA have
    done tens, and arguably hundreds, of billions of dollars of economic damage. The
    EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation should not be headed by an expert in stretching and
    twisting the Clean Air Act in ways that expand regulatory authority at the expense of
    American taxpayers, workers, and consumers.

    Sincerely,

    Myron Ebell
    Director, Center for Energy and Environment
    Competitive Enterprise Institute

    Garrett Bess
    Vice President
    Heritage Action for America

    James L. Martin, Founder/Chairman


    and Saulius “Saul” Anuzis, President
    60 Plus Association
    Adam Brandon
    President
    FreedomWorks

    James Taylor
    President
    The Heartland Institute

    Craig Rucker
    President
    Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT)

    Craig Richardson
    Title: President
    Energy & Environment Legal Institute

    Steve Milloy
    Founder and Publisher
    JunkScience.com

    Steven J. Allen
    Vice Chairman
    The Conservative Caucus

    Daniel Turner
    Executive Director
    Power The Future

    Rob Schilling
    Executive Director
    Energy Policy Advocates

    John Droz, jr.


    Founder
    Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (AWED)

    Seton Motley
    President
    Less Government
    Jameson Taylor
    President
    Center for Political Renewal (CPR)

    Donna Jackson
    Director, Membership Development
    Project 21

    Paul Gessing
    President
    Rio Grande Foundation

    E. Calvin Beisner
    President
    Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation

    Jon Sanders
    Director of the Center for Food, Power, and Life
    John Locke Foundation

    Kathleen Sgamma
    President
    Western Energy Alliance

    Tim Stewart
    President
    US Oil and Gas Association

    Jason McFarland
    President
    International Association of Drilling Contractors

    Carla Sands
    U. S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark (ret.)

    Donn Dears
    Author of The Looming Energy Crisis

    You might also like