EPA bars reporters, again....

EPA bars reporters from toxic chemicals summit again

By EMILY HOLDEN

EPA staff Wednesday morning barred POLITICO and reporters from at least two other publications from entering a national summit on toxic chemicals, a day after a partial media blackout at the same event brought criticism from congressional Democrats and a pledge by the White House to investigate the incident.

The agency on Tuesday had allowed a select group of reporters to cover the first hour of the summit's introductory remarks, including comments by Administrator Scott Pruitt, but then escorted press out. EPA reversed its decision to ban media after news coverage of the policy and reports from the Associated Press that one of its journalists was forcibly ejected from the building by a security guard. Reporters were invited back for Tuesday afternoon.

But on Wednesday, the agency again said no reporters would be allowed to attend.

The event, where attendees are discussing whether and how to regulate a class of chemicals linked to immune disorders and certain cancers, included federal and state officials, health groups and industry interests on Tuesday. On Wednesday, it is limited to the agencies that handle chemical oversight and state regulators, according to an EPA statement.

POLITICO Editor Carrie Budoff Brown said in a statement Wednesday that the agency should have opened both days of the discussion.

"The summit was focused on an important public health crisis that has affected drinking water supplies across the country, and chemicals that are present in the bloodstreams of nearly all Americans," she said. "We believe it is important that the news media have access to the entirety of this discussion to keep the public informed with fact-driven, accountability coverage of this important issue — we would much rather be writing about the agency's efforts to address this health problem than about reporters being excluded."

Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said on Twitter that the closure raises questions about EPA's priorities.

"I can’t believe I have to say this two days in a row, but @EPA works for the American people," Carper wrote. "Unfortunately, it’s clear that this EPA is more concerned with protecting the EPA chemical summit from the public than it is with protecting the public from harmful chemicals."

The Society of Environmental Journalists told Pruitt in a letter Wednesday that it "strenuously objects" to the agency's "selective barring of news reporters."

"It beggars understanding that the EPA would prevent any reporters from covering a topic of such intense nationwide interest and concern," the group wrote, calling the episodes "just the latest additions to your pattern of antagonism toward the press, and disregard for the public’s right to know." The journalists' group also urged the agency to stop holding up publication of a still-unreleased study by the Department of Health and Human Services on the chemicals being discussed at the summit, a delay POLITICO disclosed last week.

The Federal Advisory Committee Act requires that “any committee, board, commission, council, conference, panel, task force, or other similar group, or any subcommittee or other subgroup” used by an agency to provide recommendations to the federal government should be open to the public.

Reporters from E&E News and Crown Publishing earlier Wednesday morning waited outside the meeting and were not permitted to enter. A CNN producer also was turned away from the building.

“The National Leadership Summit on PFAS scheduled is not a federal advisory committee event,” EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox argued in an emailed statement. “The purpose of this event is for EPA’s state, tribal, and federal government partners and national organizations to share a range of individual perspectives on the Agency’s actions to date and path forward on [the chemicals]. The Agency looks forward to hearing from all stakeholders on these crucial issues.”

Peter Grevatt, director of EPA's Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water, said in a statement distributed by EPA's press office that the summit's second day was not intended to include as full a range of participants as the first day.

"Both state and federal officials had the expectation that the second day of the Summit would be a government-to-government discussion between federal and state co-regulators who are working together to address this important issue," Grevatt said.

The White House had said Tuesday it would "look into" EPA's decision to bar reporters from the event.

Pruitt scheduled the PFAS summit months ago, but it has attracted increased attention after POLITICO reported that senior EPA officials had helped block the release of an HHS study that would have increased warnings about the chemicals. EPA stepped in after the White House warned in January that releasing the study would create a "public relations nightmare."

Pruitt said he was unaware of that intervention, but it has added to the criticism he has faced from lawmakers and the public in recent months. The embattled administrator is facing more than a dozen federal investigations over his first-class travel, sweetheart condo rental from a lobbyist, heavy security spending and other matters.

Critics were quick to jump on Tuesday's reports of journalists being turned away.

"Concerns have been mounting for many months that EPA is refusing to do the public's business in public," Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) wrote in a letter to Pruitt, citing previous efforts to limit press access and his refusal to announce official travel in advance. "However, the treatment of journalists" Tuesday "reached a new low."

Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee distributed a Twitter meme accusing Pruitt of getting "distracted from the EPA's mission again."

Even some past Pruitt defenders, such as a writer for the libertarian Reason magazine, concluded the decision to deny access amounts to a self-inflicted wound.

One panel to which EPA had initially tried to bar access Tuesday featured an HHS official involved in the research that had alarmed the White House earlier this year. Patrick Breysse, the head of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry within HHS, said the study will be released "soon" and that its key findings will remain unchanged from a draft that the agency was preparing to publish in January.

Breysse told POLITICO on Tuesday that publication of the health study was delayed so Trump administration officials could come up with a communications strategy "that's all consistent and approved and agreed upon" across agencies including EPA and the Defense Department.