red states rule
11-19-2011, 06:30 AM
More from the most transparent administration in our nations's history
First the WH pressed Solndra not to lay off its workers until after the 2010 election - now this
The Obama administration pressured analysts to change an environmental review to reflect fewer job losses from a proposed regulation, the contractors who worked on the review testified Friday.
The dispute revolves around proposed changes to a rule regulating coal mining near streams and other waterways. The experts contracted to analyze the impact of the rule initially found that it would cost 7,000 coal jobs.
But the contractors claim they were subsequently pressured to not only keep the findings under wraps but "revisit" the study in order to show less of an impact on jobs.
Steve Gardner, president of Kentucky consulting firm ECSI, claimed that after the project team refused to "soften" the numbers, the firms working on the study were told the contract would not be renewed. ECSI was a subcontractor on the project.
The government "'suggested' that the ... members revisit the production impacts and associated job loss numbers, with different assumptions that obviously would then lead to a lesser impact," Gardner testified before a House Natural Resources subcommittee. "The ... team unanimously refused to use a 'fabricated' baseline scenario to soften the production loss numbers."
The Obama administration, without going into specifics, contested Gardner's claims after the hearing.
The charges escalate a dispute over environmental regulations that has been brewing for months, as the Obama administration tries to overhaul mining rules that were put in place at the end of the George W. Bush (http://www.foxnews.com/topics/politics/george-bush.htm#r_src=ramp) administration following a years-long review.
"Right now, there's a tremendous amount of smoke. And where there's smoke, there's usually fire," Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, told FoxNews.com ahead of the hearing Friday.
The prediction that the changes would cost 7,000 jobs was first made public in January of this year. As officials in the affected states cried foul, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement defended its proposed re-write.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/11/18/contractors-claim-administration-pressed-to-soften-job-loss-estimates-from/
First the WH pressed Solndra not to lay off its workers until after the 2010 election - now this
The Obama administration pressured analysts to change an environmental review to reflect fewer job losses from a proposed regulation, the contractors who worked on the review testified Friday.
The dispute revolves around proposed changes to a rule regulating coal mining near streams and other waterways. The experts contracted to analyze the impact of the rule initially found that it would cost 7,000 coal jobs.
But the contractors claim they were subsequently pressured to not only keep the findings under wraps but "revisit" the study in order to show less of an impact on jobs.
Steve Gardner, president of Kentucky consulting firm ECSI, claimed that after the project team refused to "soften" the numbers, the firms working on the study were told the contract would not be renewed. ECSI was a subcontractor on the project.
The government "'suggested' that the ... members revisit the production impacts and associated job loss numbers, with different assumptions that obviously would then lead to a lesser impact," Gardner testified before a House Natural Resources subcommittee. "The ... team unanimously refused to use a 'fabricated' baseline scenario to soften the production loss numbers."
The Obama administration, without going into specifics, contested Gardner's claims after the hearing.
The charges escalate a dispute over environmental regulations that has been brewing for months, as the Obama administration tries to overhaul mining rules that were put in place at the end of the George W. Bush (http://www.foxnews.com/topics/politics/george-bush.htm#r_src=ramp) administration following a years-long review.
"Right now, there's a tremendous amount of smoke. And where there's smoke, there's usually fire," Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, told FoxNews.com ahead of the hearing Friday.
The prediction that the changes would cost 7,000 jobs was first made public in January of this year. As officials in the affected states cried foul, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement defended its proposed re-write.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/11/18/contractors-claim-administration-pressed-to-soften-job-loss-estimates-from/