There is, simply put, no way to explain Lubchenco's and Krupp's decision to turn down a call from a U.S. Senate subcommittee to provide input next week at a Boston hearing in which the panel, including U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, is seeking answers on NOAA's use of funds drawn from abused fishermen, and on the agency's incessant drumbeat for a catch share management system.
Krupp's snub of the committee's "request" is bad enough. As head of a multi-million-dollar nonprofit, one can argue that Krupp and EDF's only real accountably is to their billion-dollar corporate donors. They're the ones EDF serves by, as its own 2005 donor grant proposal notes, "working the regulatory process from the inside." So while his action shows no respect for the Senate committee members, there is a context to his digging in his heels.
But for Lubchenco — who has let EDF's corporate-backed policy essentially become NOAA's own "cap and trade" power grab for the oceans — boycotting the Senate hearing just reiterates the contempt for Congress she has shown in the past, even if she is sending NOAA fisheries caddy Eric Schwaab in her stead.
Read the complete editorial from The Gloucester Times.