Agency bloggers put up their dukes to battle critics of power plant rule

摘要

There was a time when U.S. EPA kept above the fray, cautiously answering questions about its policies at congressional hearings and generally ignoring shots from opponents in Congress and the advocacy community. No more. In the last two weeks in particular, the agency's communications team has rushed to respond in real time to critics' claims about the economic cost of its newly proposed existing power plant rule for carbon dioxide, taking the unusual step of posting on the agency's blog about nearly every new conservative analysis that comes down the pike. Tom Reynolds, EPA's associate administrator in the Office of External Affairs, said in an interview that the agency's goal was to "counter this faux doom and gloom rhetoric that certain groups are out there spouting."