The Environmental Protection Agency excluded several news outlets and reporters who regularly cover the agency from a press briefing and announcement regarding its release of a regulation that expands its jurisdiction over waterways.
The Washington Examiner, as well as publications such as U.S. News and World Report and the Alaska Dispatch-News, were not sent an email at about 7:15 a.m. informing a wide range of reporters and news organizations of the impending Waters of the United States rule. Those reporters also received a later email sent around 9 a.m. that included a blog post from EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy and Jo-Ellen Darcy, assistant secretary for the Army for Civil Works with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Reporters included on the initial email regarding the water rule were bound by a 10 a.m. embargo not to release the information. Reporters who weren’t included on that email were prevented from participating in a 9:15 a.m. press call with McCarthy and Darcy. The EPA didn’t publish the final rule on its website until nearly 11 a.m. The next call with reporters began at 1:30 p.m., with McCarthy and Darcy on the line.
EPA also excluded some New York Times reporters who regularly cover the EPA, one of whom co-wrote a story critical of the agency last week. It instead invited Ron Nixon, a reporter who covers the effect that legislation and regulations across various agencies have on consumers.
The selectivity comes after a Times article last week accused the agency of enlisting environmental groups to flood the public comments on the rule. Some sources in the Times story said the EPA might have flouted lobbying rules in promoting the regulation. The EPA called the Times piece “sloppy” and “erroneous,” though the newspaper’s public editor found no merit in those accusations. McCarthy said Wednesday that the agency “did nothing that would cross any legal lines here.”
The water rule faces stiff opposition from conservatives, rural Democrats, manufacturers and farmers who say the rule could stop development near most waterways. The agency has said the rule clarifies when a permit is needed for certain activities near waterways. The final rule said the agency has jurisdiction of bodies of waters that feed into those that link up with drinking water supplies, effectively giving the EPA authority to regulate pollutants upstream.
Thomas Reynolds, an EPA spokesman, denied charges from reporters that the agency excluded certain outlets.
“We invited a number of outlets to participate who regularly cover this issue and cover the agency to make sure that folks were informed. We’re holding this call to make sure reporters from the West Coast were also able to get the same information,” Reynolds said during a Wednesday media call.
The Examiner has extensively covered the issue. It ran two stories last week that discussed the rule and has done so regularly since it was first proposed in June 2014.
Rolling back the rule is a top priority for Alaskan lawmakers, given that the state hosts 63 percent of the nation’s wetlands — yet the Alaska Dispatch News wasn’t informed. National competitors of U.S. News and World Report were also notified ahead of the magazine.
But it’s not the first time the agency has been accused of shutting out reporters.
The Society of Environmental Journalists has filed numerous formal complaints against the EPA. The most recent came in April, when the media trade group said the agency’s practice of “stonewalling” Freedom of Information Act requests amounted to a “denial of information.”
The Society of Environmental Journalists also criticized the agency for refusing to make on-the-record comments to reporters when it announced its proposed regulation for cutting emissions from power plants in June 2014. It also accused the EPA of “routinely” denying access to agency scientists and experts.
• Correction: This story has been updated to show the EPA invited New York Times reporter Ron Nixon.
