XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: lernersyndrome@barackobama.com   
      
   Washington (CNN) -- One day after focusing on lost e-mails at   
   the IRS, the House Oversight Committee learned Wednesday that   
   the Environmental Protection Agency is also having trouble   
   recovering e-mails the committee wants as part of a separate   
   investigation.   
      
   McCarthy: "There is a challenge"   
      
   EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy told the Republican-led   
   committee that the agency cannot access some e-mails belonging   
   to a biologist who worked on a controversial mining project   
   assessment. It is a hard drive problem, but McCarthy was careful   
   to not call it a "hard drive crash" or destroyed hard drive.   
      
   "I don't believe this is a missing hard drive issue," McCarthy   
   told the panel, "There is a challenge getting access to the data   
   on it... I'm still hoping we recover all those e-mails."   
      
   "I heard similar testimony yesterday," replied Rep. Mark   
   Meadows, R-North Carolina, dryly referring to the committee's   
   Tuesday hearing about a critical crashed hard drive at the IRS.   
      
   Investigation into mine report   
      
   With the EPA, the committee is investigating whether the   
   biologist involved, or anyone else at the agency, colluded with   
   environmentalists to produce a negative assessment of a mining   
   proposal in Alaska. A separate investigation by the agency's   
   inspector general is also underway.   
      
   The environmental assessment concluded that the Pebble Mine   
   project could significantly harm the sockeye salmon fishery in   
   Bristol Bay. As a result, in February, the agency essentially   
   froze the permitting process for the mine as it reviews options   
   for the area.   
      
   McCarthy insisted the agency is trying to recover the   
   biologists' missing e-mails, but also tried to downplay his role   
   in the mine assessment.   
      
   "He's not a decison maker in this process," she said. "He   
   inputed into the science assessment that's been fully peer-   
   reviewed. We have not made any decision on Bristol Bay, we've   
   just taken a first step."   
      
   "But he could have colluded..." fired back Meadows.   
      
   "Which is why it's important the (inspector general) finish his   
   report," McCarthy replied.   
      
   Did the EPA break the law?   
      
   Meadows pressed McCarthy on whether the agency broke federal   
   records-keeping law. "Were all his emails preserved according to   
   the Federal Records Act or was a law violated?"   
      
   McCarthy answered that the EPA notified the National Archives   
   and Records Administration about the hard drive problem Tuesday.   
      
   "I think we have notified the appropriate authorities that we   
   may have some e-mails that we cannot produce that we should have   
   kept."   
      
   Issa (re)threatens contempt charge   
      
   During the same hearing, Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa, R-   
   California, also demanded that the agency turn over documents   
   that the committee subpoenaed last year.   
      
   "You have not complied with the subpoena," he told McCarthy. "I   
   am telling you, the time to comply is now. If it is not complied   
   with... this committee will consider and vote on contempt."   
      
   Issa has made this threat to McCarthy before, but indicated   
   Wednesday that he expects a response within days or he is ready   
   to act on the contempt charge.   
      
   By the end of the hearing, McCarthy and Issa agreed to let their   
   staffs work behind the scenes.   
      
   "I hope that over the next few days our folks and your folks can   
   resolve this with all the e-mails," Issa concluded.   
      
   http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/26/politics/epa-lost-   
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