Inhofe Watch: Senator Sparks Investigation Against Wildlife Group

by Emily Gertz

categories: Global Warming Denial, Inhofe Watch, Politics, Wildlife & Biodiversity

Published March 10, 2009 @ 08:16PM PT

The federal government is demanding that the National Wildlife Federation reveal the name of a whistleblower who in 2008 leaked Bush administration plans to gut the Endangered Species Act.

The investigation was requested by Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), who is ranking minority member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and (as I noted in my Top Five Underreported Climate Stories of 2008) has a known antipathy for environmental activists and environmental regulations.

At Inhofe's urging, the inspector general for the Commerce Department, Todd Zinser, has sent an administrative subpoena to the enviro advocacy group, demanding "documents that would identify who leaked the draft environmental rules, which were not marked sensitive, secret or otherwise confidential or classified," according to Pete Yost of the Associated Press.

"The case suggests that, under at least certain circumstances, the government will continue to pursue and identify federal employees who disclose sensitive documents about controversial U.S. policies -- a common practice under the Bush administration," writes Yost.

Zisner is a Bush appointee who has been the inspector general of commerce since December 2007. An Obama administration spokesman says the White House was not told about the investigation before the subpoena was issued, reports Yost, writing also that the NWF plans to go to court to get the subpoena quashed.

In a statement, Sen. Jim "applauded" the Commerce I.O.'s move, stating that whistleblowers threaten the government's ability to review regulations. ".... the unauthorized release of such potentially controversial, yet critically-needed regulatory reforms indicates a serious abdication of duty among one of the Services' personnel. Importantly, no one disputes a rule was broken."

Although a provision of the Endangered Species Act was broken when the Bush administration waived the need for scientific consultations, Sen. Jim has not suggested any investigation into what brought about that midnight rule change.

Last week President Obama issued an executive order that put these Bush rule changes on ice.

While a latticework of federal and state laws somewhat protect whistleblowers who reveal bad actions by private employers, there is not much protection against retaliation for whistleblowers from within federal agencies. A provision in the economic stimulus bill to protect federal whistleblowers was stripped out during House-Senate negotiations to reconcile their differing versions of the legislation.