"When career EPA enforcement staffers accused an Indiana whiskey distillery of emitting massive quantities of smog-forming pollution, Patrice Douglas knew just who to call.
'I left a message last week, and am needing to talk with you about a client's difficulties with Region 5,' Douglas, a lawyer at Spencer Fane LLP, said in an October 2017 email to EPA Chief of Staff Ryan Jackson, a fellow Oklahoma Republican who's one of the agency's longest-serving and most influential political appointees. 'We need to escalate this matter.'
In the final full month of the Obama administration, EPA's Great Lakes region claimed Douglas' client, MGP Ingredients, had improperly built air polluting warehouses in a county that at the time failed to comply with smog limits. MGPI took the allegations seriously, warning investors in November 2017 that its failure to apply for a Clean Air Act permit could cost the company at least $100,000 in fines.
But after Douglas contacted Jackson, the fortunes of MGPI — like several other polluting companies whose representatives sought his assistance — changed for the better."
Corbin Hiar and Mike Soraghan report for Greenwire September 18, 2019.
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