EPA denies regional chief used private email for official business

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shot down claims by a pair of senior Republicans that an agency official used a private email account for official business.

EPA said regional administrator James Martin complied with Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Sen. David Vitter’s (R-La.) initial inquiry by handing over all emails containing the words “Environmental Defense Fund” from his personal account.

“As detailed in public filings, the Regional Administrator does not use his personal email account to conduct official business. That Mr. Martin responded to one email sent to his personal email account to confirm a meeting that appears on his official government calendar does not alter that fact,” EPA said in a Tuesday statement to The Hill.

The lawmakers said in a Tuesday letter to Martin that they were concerned he had communicated with an Environmental Defense Fund attorney through an Apple email account.

Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Vitter, the top Republican on the Senate environment committee, asked for more correspondence from that account. They contended Martin might be using the account to skirt federal records laws.

EPA said that it already went to great lengths to satisfy the lawmakers’ original missive.

“In producing these documents, the EPA and the Regional Administrator have gone beyond any legal requirements in our efforts to ensure full transparency,” the agency said.

Martin oversees EPA operations in Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming and 27 tribal areas.

Martin’s jurisdiction is of interest to Issa and Vitter because it includes Pavillion, Wyo., the site of a controversial EPA study on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

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