A top Environmental Protection Agency official called his colleagues in the White House a vulgar name for not handing down tough fracking regulations, according to a media report.
The Washington Free Beacon published text messages, obtained by the Energy and Environment Legal Institute, between EPA policy chief Michael Goo and Sierra Club top climate policy official John Coequyt in which Goo expressed frustration with the White House Office of Management and Budget.
The issue was a 2012 agreement between the White House and environmental groups to delay new regulations on fracking. Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is the process of injecting water and chemicals into layers of rock deep underground to release fossil fuels trapped in the rock.
Goo and Coequyt were frustrated by the delay, and Goo lashed out in a text message about the decision.
“If you want any hope of regulation of fracking, then give us more time to try and remove the gun from our head and talk sense into OMB d—heads,” Goo said in a text, according to the Free Beacon.
The EPA issued new regulations on greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas fracking wells about two weeks after the April 2012 text message.
