EPA Says It Can’t Produce Docs Congress Wants Because of a Hard Drive Crash, Not a Repeat from IRS Hearings

Where is the federal government buying their hard drives?

We need to know so we can avoid them:

While most of President Obama’s Cabinet was touting the anniversary of President Obama’s landmark speech in which he laid out plans to address climate change, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy was left facing a contempt threat from House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa.

…

The hearing also included a bit of deja vu for the committee when members grilled McCarthy on lost emails from a hard-drive crash (the same issue that wiped out emails from IRS employee Lois Lerner). In this case, the emails in question were from retired EPA employee Philip North, who was involved in the agency’s decision to begin the process of preemptively vetoing the Pebble Mine project in Alaska.

North, who declined an interview request by the committee, is retired, and committee staff say they have been unable to track him down. According to a committee aide, North’s hard drive crashed in 2010—which was around the same time that the committee is investigating the agency’s discussions of a potential veto—and the emails were not backed up.

McCarthy said it appeared there were some emails the agency could not produce that should have been kept, but she was still working to see if they could be recovered.

Meanwhile, in IT:

Is it time to go beyond Congressional hearings yet?

I think so.

Photo Credit: Wonder Ferret