Some EPA employees made a video about their opinions of President Obama's administration's plan to use cap and trade legislation to fight climate trade. These EPA employees Laurie Williams, and Alan Zabel are a married couple and have worked for the EPA for over 20 years. They were approved to make a video by their bosses in San Francisco, and they made the video in their own time. Cap and trade works like this: companies are issued emissions limits, or caps, which they can then trade -- as a means to fight climate change. The video stated that "Cap-and-trade with offsets provides a false sense of progress and puts money in the pockets of investors, we think that these restrictions might not be constitutional." They released the video and wrote an editorial for the Washington Post, but now EPA Director Lisa Jackson ordered that they remove the video, or disciplinary action will follow. When questioned about it, the EPA released a statement that said that they welcome free expression, but they want Laurie and Alan to emphasize that they are speaking for themselves and not the EPA. Some people have called this incident censorship.
My opinion: I feel that this is borderline censorship. Yes, they should make it clear that they don't represent the EPA in this regard, but they have every right to make a video proving something wrong that they feel is wrong.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/11/17/epa-employees-silenced-criticizing-cap-trade/
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