Release 3 - HQ-FOI-01268-12 All emails sent by "Richard Windsor" were sent by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson Adora Andy/DC/USEPA/US To Richard Windsor 10/06/2010 10:16 AM cc Alisha Johnson, Arvin Ganesan, Betsaida Alcantara, Brendan Gilfillan, David McIntosh, Michael Moats, Seth Oster bcc Subject Re: POLITICO: RAHM TAKES LABOLT !!! Richard Windsor "The boys" ??? ----- Original Messa... 10/06/2010 10:15:39 AM From: Richard Windsor/DC/USEPA/US To: Adora Andy/DC/USEPA/US@EPA, David McIntosh/DC/USEPA/US@EPA, Seth Oster/DC/USEPA/US@EPA, Arvin Ganesan/DC/USEPA/US@EPA, Brendan Gilfillan/DC/USEPA/US@EPA, Betsaida Alcantara/DC/USEPA/US@EPA, Alisha Johnson/DC/USEPA/US@EPA, Michael Moats/DC/USEPA/US@EPA Date: 10/06/2010 10:15 AM Subject: Re: POLITICO: RAHM TAKES LABOLT "The boys" ??? Adora Andy ----- Original Message ----- From: Adora Andy Sent: 10/06/2010 10:13 AM EDT To: Richard Windsor; David McIntosh; Seth Oster; Arvin Ganesan; Brendan Gilfillan; Betsaida Alcantara; Alisha Johnson; Michael Moats Subject: POLITICO: RAHM TAKES LABOLT Emanuel takes LaBolt with him By: Carol E. Lee October 6, 2010 12:00 AM EDT A member of President Barack Obama’s close-knit team is leaving the White House to work for former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel’s mayoral bid in Chicago, POLITICO has learned. Ben LaBolt, a native Chicagoan and one of Obama’s longest-serving press aides, will serve as Emanuel’s campaign’s communications director, according to sources with knowledge of the hire. LaBolt will leave his job as an assistant White House press secretary by the end of October, sources said. Emanuel was looking for someone with Chicago roots and a combative side for the campaign he launched Sunday, just two days after leaving his White House post. LaBolt, 29, was born and raised in the Chicago area and understands the city’s media and political worlds. He’s also known for his push-back on reporters writing stories he perceives as unflattering and for serving as the point person on thorny issues. The hire has been in the works for days, with the final details ironed out Tuesday. LaBolt is a veteran in the Obama press operation who served as Obama's press secretary when he was in the Senate and worked on his presidential campaign from the Release 3 - HQ-FOI-01268-12 All emails sent by "Richard Windsor" were sent by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson start. In January 2009, he become one of a handful of spokesmen to work under White House press secretary Robert Gibbs. LaBolt has been tasked with handling several high-profile controversie for Obama. During the campaign it was speculation about the authenticity of Obama’s birth certificate, and later it was questions about the indictment and subsequent trial of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. His official White House portfolio includes issues that fell within the departments of Energy, Interior, Commerce and Justice. So he’s handled press for Obama’s Supreme Court nominees and worked on the BP oil spill – the politics of it, not the nitty-gritty details of the response. His duties have also at times included acting as spokesman for the White House Counsel’s office and Carol Browner, Obama’s top adviser on energy and climate change. Prior to his time with Obama, LaBolt served as press secretary and legislative assistant to Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.). A graduate of Middlebury College, he’s also worked at the Democratic National Committee, on Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign and as press secretary for Sherrod Brown’s successful 2006 Senate campaign in Ohio. LaBolt’s departure will be a loss for his White House colleagues, with whom he has close friendships and has shared tight working quarters on a daily basis since the beginning of the Obama campaign in 2007. He will be the first of the small circle of press aides – “the boys” as they’re known – to leave the White House. Not that Obama’s communications shop hasn’t seen its share of change. Former EMILY’s List executive director Ellen Moran left her position as White House communications director less than three months after Obama took office after it became clear the job wasn’t the right fit. Veteran Democratic strategist Anita Dunn took over in the interim until Dan Pfeiffer was permanently given the job in November 2009. Deputy communications director Jen Psaki was promoted from deputy press secretary shortly after Pfeiffer moved up. Psaki was replaced by Amy Brundage, who had been regional communications director. And Caroline Hughes became a press assistant when Priya Singh left to become an aide to United Nations ambassador Susan Rice. LaBolt’s replacement has not been named. Adora Andy Deputy Associate Administrator U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of External Affairs and Environmental Education 202-564-2715 [email protected] Release 3 - HQ-FOI-01268-12 All emails sent by "Richard Windsor" were sent by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson Adora Andy/DC/USEPA/US To "Shawn Garvin", "Peter Silva", "Richard Windsor", "Bob Perciasepe", "Diane Thompson", "Bob Sussman", "David 10/12/2010 08:58 AM McIntosh", "Seth Oster", "Arvin Ganesan", "Stephanie Owens", Sarah Pallone, "Dru Ealons" cc "Betsaida Alcantara", "Brendan Gilfillan", "Alisha Johnson" bcc Subject HEADS UP: Manchin Ad shoots Climate Bill (Literally) In a new Manchin Ad in WV, the Governor is walking through the wilderness, holding a single-barrel shot gun with scope. He uses gun imagery and language to show he protects the 2nd amendment and his NRA endorsement. He uses words like "defend West VA," "take on Washington." The kicker: "I sued EPA and I'll take dead aim [aims gun downrage at target, pulls trigger, shot rings out] at the climate bill." [Reveal close up of Climate Bill hanging from target with a bullet hole through the middle] "Because it's bad for West Virginia." ### Release 3 - HQ-FOI-01268-12 All emails sent by "Richard Windsor" were sent by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson Betsaida To Richard Windsor Alcantara/DC/USEPA/US cc 09/22/2010 01:26 PM bcc Subject Re: Greenwire -- WHITE HOUSE: Cabinet meeting yields 'environmental justice' pledges Also had greenwire change headline. It wasn't an official cabinet mtg which the headline implies. They've changed that as well. I'll share the rest of the articles as soon as they post. Betsaida Alcantara ----- Original Message ----- From: Betsaida Alcantara Sent: 09/22/2010 12:56 PM EDT To: Richard Windsor Subject: Greenwire -- WHITE HOUSE: Cabinet meeting yields 'environmental justice' pledges i had a nice talk to this greenwire reporter. here's his article. all good WHITE HOUSE: Cabinet meeting yields 'environmental justice' pledges (Wednesday, September 22, 2010) Gabriel Nelson, E&E reporter During a meeting this morning at the White House, the heads of U.S. EPA, the Interior Department, the Transportation Department and the Department of Housing and Urban Development agreed to update their environmental justice plans by next fall and to restart a long-dormant panel that was created to address that issue. The Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice, formed in 1994 by President Clinton under Executive Order 12898, had not convened at the Cabinet level since the middle of the Clinton administration, EPA said today. The agencies will now meet monthly to discuss environmental justice, with their top officials gathering for follow-up Cabinet sessions in April and October of next year. Today's meeting showed that the individual agencies have already made environmental justice a priority, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson told Greenwire today. "There's a lot of legwork that goes into the kind of work we heard from each one of the agencies in the room," Jackson said, explaining why the panel hadn't gathered since President Obama took office. "None of these agencies, and certainly not my own, have waited in terms of impacting and acting on environmental justice." Attorney General Eric Holder presented a plan to improve enforcement under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which bars discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin, she said. HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan discussed the fair distribution of disaster relief funding, and DOT Secretary Ray LaHood outlined the agency's role in promoting sustainable development. Since the start of her tenure, Jackson has made environmental justice a priority at EPA, listing it in a draft strategic plan as one of the agency's seven priorities for the next five years. As part of the so-called "Environmental Justice Tour," she has joined members of the Congressional Black Caucus on visits to areas facing environmental distress. EPA is currently taking comment on draft guidance, released earlier this summer, that tells employees how to factor environmental justice into their decisions. The agency is also working on a screening tool that uses demographic and pollution data to identify pockets of people who have suffered more than most (Greenwire, July 30). The administration announced today that it will schedule regional "listening sessions" on environmental justice next year and hold a White House forum on the topic. Though President Obama is drawing intense fire from Republicans, who say his regulatory agenda has slowed the recovery of the economy, Jackson said the meeting on environmental justice was not an effort to respond to that criticism. "This meeting wasn't about politics," she said. "A clean environment is not a political issue -- every American wants and demands a clean and healthy environment." Today's meeting was also attended by Nancy Sutley, chairwoman of the White House Council on Release 3 - HQ-FOI-01268-12 All emails sent by "Richard Windsor" were sent by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson Environmental Quality; Carol Browner, the White House climate and energy adviser and a former EPA director; John Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; Melody Barnes, director of the White House Office of Domestic Policy; and Martha Johnson, head of the General Services Administration. "This country was built on the promise of equal opportunity for all of us, yet low-income families and minority communities shoulder a disproportionate amount of pollution and environmental degradation," Sutley said in a statement. "We cannot and will not ignore these disparities." Release 3 - HQ-FOI-01268-12 All emails sent by "Richard Windsor" were sent by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson Betsaida To Richard Windsor Alcantara/DC/USEPA/US cc 12/04/2009 10:07 AM bcc Subject Re: POLITICO: Lisa Jackson this is such a nice little present on a cloudy Friday morning here :) we'll post on facebook. Richard Windsor Nice opening! ----- Original Messag... 12/04/2009 10:03:40 AM From: Richard Windsor/DC/USEPA/US To: Betsaida Alcantara/DC/USEPA/US@EPA Date: 12/04/2009 10:03 AM Subject: Re: POLITICO: Lisa Jackson Nice opening! Betsaida Alcantara ----- Original Message ----- From: Betsaida Alcantara Sent: 12/04/2009 10:02 AM EST To: Richard Windsor Cc: Allyn Brooks-LaSure Subject: POLITICO: Lisa Jackson Lisa Jackson By: Alexander Burns December 3, 2009 11:57 PM EST Of all the Obama administration officials headed to Copenhagen, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson may be the one most directly engaged in the fight against global warming. Since last April, when the EPA issued a ruling calling climate change a threat to public health, Jackson has been positioning her agency to start placing restrictions on carbon emissions. And even in the initial announcement of the EPA’s decision to label carbon a pollutant, Jackson framed the move in terms of comprehensive energy reform. “This pollution problem has a solution — one that will create millions of green jobs and end our country’s dependence on foreign oil,” Jackson said. The former New Jersey environmental protection commissioner has reassured legislators that she does not intend to dictate the kinds of large-scale regulatory shifts under consideration in Congress. “Even as the president and the members of his Cabinet move forward under existing authority, we continue urging Congress to pass a new clean energy law,” Jackson told a Senate panel in late October. “Only new legislation can bring about the comprehensive Release 3 - HQ-FOI-01268-12 All emails sent by "Richard Windsor" were sent by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and integrated changes that are needed to restore America’s economic health and keep the nation secure over the long term.” But the EPA’s steps toward curbing emissions are unmistakable: The agency recently proposed a new rule requiring power plants exceeding a certain carbon output to demonstrate that they are minimizing emissions to the greatest degree possible. So far, the White House has Jackson’s back. In a recent news briefing, press secretary Robert Gibbs cast steps toward regulating carbon as legal necessities. “There’s a Supreme Court order that this is an issue that has to be dealt with,” Gibbs said. “The president has said throughout this process that the way to deal with this is through legislation. That’s what we’re trying to do, and that’s what we hope to do.” Release 3 - HQ-FOI-01268-12 All emails sent by "Richard Windsor" were sent by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson Betsaida To Richard Windsor, Bob Perciasepe, Bob Sussman, Nancy Alcantara/DC/USEPA/US Stoner, Brendan Gilfillan, Adora Andy, Diane Thompson, Arvin Ganesan, David McIntosh, Daniel Kanninen, Bob 05/11/2011 01:45 PM Sussman cc bcc Subject Politico: GOP slams EPA's 'war on coal' GOP slams EPA's 'war on coal' By Darren Samuelsohn POLITICO Pro 5/11/11 1:32 PM EDT House Republicans slammed the EPA Wednesday for waging a "war on coal" that has left industry struggling to meet a shifting landscape of environmental regulations. About a dozen GOP members of a Transportation and Infrastructure panel unloaded on the Obama administration for tightening standards last spring on mining companies that need Clean Water Act permits and also for banning mine operators from filling stream valleys with rock waste — a critical step in mountaintop removal mining. EPA acting water chief Nancy Stoner defended her agency's work, explaining that it is taking industry concerns into account even as it follows legal requirements to protect public health and the environment. “We've stood our ground based on peer-reviewed science,” she said. But Republicans weren't buying her arguments, complaining that the EPA has skirted advice from the Army Corps of Engineers and state officials, including in mining heavyweight West Virginia. "Actions speak louder than words," said West Virginia Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito. “You are running roughshod as an agency,” added Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska). Before Stoner could testify, GOP lawmakers made her sit through 90 minutes of complaints from an opening panel of mining industry advocates. Mike Carey, head of the Ohio Coal Association and a frequent critic of Democratic environmental policies, singled out EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, who he said has been waging a “war on coal” dating back to her time atop the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. There, Carey complained that Jackson had blocked construction of new coal plants. "She may not be calling for a moratorium today, but her regulatory policies are certainly creating them," he said. Release 3 - HQ-FOI-01268-12 All emails sent by "Richard Windsor" were sent by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson Several green activists who filled the hearing room burst out at one point in protest of the GOP-led hearing, prompting Chairman Bob Gibbs (R-Ohio) and committee staff to threaten their removal from the room. Three people then put tape over their mouths in protest. Environmentalists got some help from the Democratic end of the dais. California Rep. Laura Richardson said Carey's comments targeting Jackson were "a little over the top, in my opinion." "We don't attack our administrator," she said. "I don't believe we allow people giving testimony [to do that] either." Subcommittee ranking member Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.) also defended the Obama administration, citing the EPA's clearance rate on Clean Water Act mining permits held over from the George W. Bush administration. Release 3 - HQ-FOI-01268-12 All emails sent by "Richard Windsor" were sent by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson