Rep. Newhouse calls for investigation into EPA Seattle’s coordination with ‘extreme environmental activists’

Congressman Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) is demanding a federal investigation into the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Region 10 office in Seattle. He alleged improper coordination between career EPA staff and left-wing environmental activist groups that led to the closure of the Cow Palace dairy in Yakima County.

In a letter sent Monday to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, Newhouse requested “an immediate investigation” into “coordination between career staff in the EPA Region 10 office in Seattle, Washington, and extreme environmental activist groups.” Newhouse said this collaboration resulted in Yakima’s Cow Palace dairy shuttering its operations, costing more than 120 local jobs and forcing the liquidation of its 7,500-head dairy herd.

“For the last fifteen years, and perhaps longer, career staff in several divisions—including the Air and Radiation Division, and Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Division—had free rein to pursue their own activist agenda,” Newhouse wrote. He argued this “coordination was the closure of the Cow Palace dairy which had been in operation since 1972.”

Newhouse has email receipts of coordination

Newhouse’s letter cites documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act that detail email exchanges and meeting invitations involving EPA staff and activists.

In one September 2023 email, attorney Charlie Tebbutt wrote to EPA staff and several activists, stating, “It is more than time to take action against all Large CAFOs [Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations], not only in the Lower Yakima Valley, but also across the nation.” Another email from April 2024 shows an activist pushing for “commitments from EPA so that state efforts do not drag on,” with appreciation for the EPA’s “promise that it’s not going anywhere.”

Newhouse highlighted a September 2024 Department of Justice meeting invite titled “U.S. v Cow Palace et al Coordination,” which included DOJ officials, EPA career staff, and activists.

“This coordination is appalling and should be investigated; if career staff did in fact coordinate with activists to target farmers, then those staff are not worthy of a taxpayer-funded salary,” Newhouse said.

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