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May 4, 2016

After EPA’s Environmental Disaster In Three States, Will The Environmentalist Left Demand Accountability?

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In August 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) “accidentally released” around 3 million gallons of “mining waste,” which put residents in three states at serious risk. Now, two U.S. senators have demanded the U.S. Department of Justice investigate the matter.

Sens. John Barrasso (R-WY) and John McCain (R-AZ) submitted a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, asking for a deeper probe of the EPA’s conduct during the spill. From The Daily Caller:

“[W]e believe that sufficient information exists to warrant an investigation by the Justice Department of whether EPA employees or contractors may have committed crimes in connection with the spill, including but not limited to criminal violations of federal environmental laws, criminal negligence and obstruction,” the Republican senators wrote.

The letter is just the latest in a series of bad news for the EPA on the crisis. In October 2015, the U.S. Department of Interior found the spill was “preventable” and the conditions and actions leading to the spill at EPA “surprisingly prevalent.”

In February 2016, congressional Republicans found that an EPA employee “was aware of blowout danger at the site” before the spill. Rep. Bob Bishop (R-UT) called the revelation one part of “a pattern of deception on the part of EPA and [Department of Interior.”

Shortly after the spill, the front lines of the Environmentalist Left came rushing to the EPA’s defense. An August 2015 post on the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)’s website even had the headline: “Hey, Congress, Quit Blaming the EPA.”

With this latest demand for accountability, will environmentalists hold the EPA to the same standard they hold energy companies … or will they look the other way for an agency they consistently collude with?