by Lachlan Markay
The Washington Free Beacon

The business arm of billionaire Democrat Tom Steyer’s political advocacy network worked behind the scenes with senior administration officials to undermine a study by a federally commissioned group that criticized environmental regulations, internal emails show.

Advanced Energy Economy (AEE), a Steyer-funded trade association, briefed senior administration officials on ways to preemptively debunk an anticipated study questioning EPA regulations’ impacts on the U.S. power grid…

AEE is one of three politically oriented groups run out of and coordinated by Steyer’s office. While his political and policy efforts garner more press attention, emails obtained by the Energy and Environment (E&E) Legal Institute through Freedom of Information Act requests reveal ways in which his coalition of green energy businesses also affects public policy…

E&E attorney Chris Horner said the emails showed a violation of the spirit if not the letter of the Obama administration’s efforts to crack down on the revolving door between federal agencies and external groups that lobby them.

“These latest emails help illustrate—whatever executive orders and lobbying restrictions might say about ‘revolving doors’ and the like—the close and indeed enabling relationship between rent-seeking industry and the administration that seeks to ‘bankrupt’ those industries’ competitors,” Horner said, referring to the green energy and coal industries, respectively.”

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