If you’re a coal lobbyist likeJeff Holmstead, getting stuck in an elevator with Greenpeace activists is an inconvenient occupational hazard. It’s worse if you can’t catch a cab during an uncomfortable conversation about your work to attack pollution laws. See this K Street confrontation for yourself:
If you’ve followed the news around EPA’s proposed Clean Power Rule, which aims to reduce the U.S. power sector’s large contributions to global warming, you’ve probably seen Jeffrey Holmstead in the news. Usually, Holmstead is presented as a “partner” at Bracewell & Giuliani, and as a former EPA assistant administrator for air and radiation under George W. Bush.
This descriptor fails to present Holmstead’s current and past work as a registered lobbyist for coal companies, and leaves out the destructive decisions that Holmstead made in his stint at EPA, which directly contributed to the premature death of tens of thousands of people in this country. It leaves out the $17.5 million thatcoal industry clients have paid Bracewell & Giuliani for its lobbying services, where Mr. Holmstead is a prized hired gun against the EPA.
This is why I began our tense conversation with a simple question: why doesn’t Jeff Holmstead use his skills, qualifications and experience to find real solutions to global warming?
Every time Mr. Holmstead has appeared in the news to discuss the EPA’s proposed Clean Power Rule to reduce U.S. carbon emissions, he doesn’t have much good to say. “As someone who believes in the rule of law, I think this clearly goes beyond what EPA is allowed to do under the Clean Air Act, Holmstead said at an event yesterday at the Bipartisan Policy Center, where I asked if his naysaying is simply to help Arch coal sell coal. Notice that Holmstead doesn’t respond: see minute7:30 in bottom video posted by BPC.
Mr. Holmstead’s criticisms aren’t surprising for a coal lobbyist, but Holmstead rarely acknowledges his coal clients and instead uses his former EPA credentials and his legal expertise to help steer Washington DC politicians, lawyers and journalists toward the coal industry’s interpretations of proposed environmental regulations.
Holmstead likes to conflate rising electricity rates with the average consumer’s utility bill, ignoring the proposed rule’s well-known intent to reduce consumer bills through energy efficiency targets. This deceptive talking point was called out by Susan Tierney of the Analysis Group at yesterday’s event at the Bipartisan Policy Center. Holmstead knows this isn’t honest–he was previously called out by NRDC’s Frances Beineke during a segment on The Diane Rehm Show.
He talks about how reducing U.S. emissions won’t make a dent in reducing global emissions, thanks to rising coal use in coutries like China and India, as if the U.S. first real national attempt to reduce emissions won’t give us legitimacy in global climate negotiations. When I used this as an example of one of Mr. Holmstead’s obstruction tactics.
With the science understood, with the financial stakes so high and with shocking estimates of the current human death toll from global warming, why does Jeffrey Holmstead make a career working for an industry that iskilling people?
I don’t have an answer, but I have sought one. For “someone who believes in the rule of law,” Mr. Holmstead has found a lot of ways to protect coal company executives at the expense of other people, within the boundaries of law or outside of the boundaries of enforcement.Avoiding personal responsibility is nothing new for Mr. Holmstead. In 2011, I confronted him for his decisions to delaying mercury regulations at U.S. power plants for eight full years, a decision he made as head of the George W. Bush EPA’s air and radiation office. That decision allowed tens of thousands of people to prematurely die from mercury’s toxic effects, according to EPA estimates of the rule’s health benefits.
After I was booted out, Gabe Elsner of the Energy and Policy Institute asked Mr. Holmstead about his role in delaying mercury regulations. The interaction says a lot about Holmstead’s aversion to recognizing the indirect role he has played in hurting people:
For someone whose decisions have had a terrible impact on the American public, Jeff Holmstead has faced little accountability for his sooty legacy. PolluterWatch will continue to monitor and expose the coal industry’s work to undermine public health and public policies designed to solve problems their business creates.
SourceWatch: Jeffrey R Holmstead
