By James Lynch
Daily Caller
A conservative watchdog organization is sounding the alarm over a top EPA official’s relationship with Georgetown University Law Center, which has sought to influence EPA policy on multiple occasions, documents show.
EPA Deputy General Counsel for Nationwide Resource Protection Susannah Weaver was given approval by the agency to sit on the GULC board of visitors, as long as she does not identify herself with the agency and abides by ethical standards, according to an Aug. 2021 memo provided to the Daily Caller by Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT), a conservative watchdog group.
PPT filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in order to obtain internal documents from the EPA.
“This authorization is really one that makes people shake their heads. It would be one thing if this were an official who was raising money for her daughter’s Girl Scout troop. But Ms. Weaver is on the board and able to fundraise for an organization whose activism frequently involves issues EPA is dealing with, at times by engaging directly with the agency – as FOIA records we have obtained show,” PPT Director Michael Chamberlain told the Caller. He previously served in the Education Department under former President Donald Trump.
“Similar to the decision allowing Christopher Frey, the agency’s top science official, to remain associated with a university that is considered to be an arm of the Chinese government while at the EPA, this is one more instance of questionable judgment by [EPA Administrator] Michael Regan, his senior staff, and their apparently pliable ethics officials,” he added. “Certainly, for an administration touting itself as the most ethical in history, this fails to clear the bar.”
