Rep. Issa: Energy Dept. Wastes Money Burying Committee in Paper

Rep. Darrell Issa’s requests for documents from the Obama administration have created a wasteful barrage of thousands of pages from the Energy Department when it could use electronic delivery, he says, The Washington Post blog the Federal Eye reported.

“The Department has delivered more than 300,000 single-sided pages in a series of productions of uncategorized paper,” the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform wrote to Energy Secretary Steven Chu last week. “This approach to producing documents wastes taxpayer dollars and is inconsistent with DOE’s stated commitment to reducing paper waste.”

The Energy Department has delivered 80 boxes of single-sided paper documents to the committee, the California Republican’s letter noted. The committee is investigating the department’s loan program that gave a $535 loan guarantee to Solyndra, a now-bankrupt solar company whose work the White House had touted.

The department should provide electronic copies of documents instead of paper, Issa said.

The Obama administration called the complaint ironic. “We’ve been saying for a year now that the sweeping requests for documents are too costly and too burdensome,” an official told the Post. “We’re pleased to see that Chairman Issa finally agrees with us.”