A U.S. Government Accountability Office investigation finds the Environmental Protection Agency has used illegal and covert propaganda to encourage support of its attempt to dramatically expand its authority over the nation’s waterways.
In March 2014, the EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released a proposed rule to define the scope of their jurisdiction in regulating waterways. The controversial plan extended the EPA’s regulatory powers over potentially every waterway, lake, wetland and ephemeral stream in the country.
The GAO found the EPA improperly used various forms of social media to try to drum up support for their plans. For example, the EPA used Thunderclap—a “crowdspeaking” platform that allows a single message to be shared on Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts—to spread the message, “Clean water is important to me. I support EPA’s efforts to protect it for my health, my family and my community.”
The GAO said that violated federal law because the message was determined to be propaganda and did not identify the EPA as the source of the message as it landed on other social media platforms.
The GAO also found the EPA broke laws prohibiting the use of taxpayer dollars for grassroots lobbying when it used hyperlinks to invite readers to websites that supported the EPA’s new water rules, such as the Natural Resources Defense Counsel and Surfrider Foundation.
A Surfrider blog post, which was written by an EPA public affairs officer, encouraged readers to “Take action… tell Congress to stop interfering with your right to clean water.”
The GAO investigation began after an initial New York Times report the EPA was illegally using social media as a propaganda tool and to encourage grassroots support of its rule during the public comment period.
The EPA has defended its actions, saying it uses social media just as others do, to stay connected with constituents. However, Senator James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma), chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, told the New York Times, that the EPA has engaged in “illegal attempts to manufacture support for its Waters of the United States rule and sway congressional opinion.”
It’s also worth noting that in its illegal campaign, the EPA tried to establish its typical straw man argument with phrases like, “I choose clean water” and “clean water is important to me,” suggesting that if you oppose the rule, you’re for pollution.
The larger issue here is whether the EPA has the authority to extend its reach to just about any place water gathers and flows, thus establishing a costly and time-consuming regulatory nightmare. The courts are standing up to the EPA. Last October, the Cincinnati-based Sixth U.S. Circuit Court voted 2-1 to temporarily block the EPA’s new rule, citing a “whirlwind of confusion” about it.
Given the EPA’s willingness to abuse its powers, whether with the waterways rule, the carbon emission rule standard or its mercury pollution rule, it’s not surprising the agency is willing to use social media to illegally disperse its propaganda.