The most transparent administration evah just can’t seem to find folks not embroiled in some sort of manipulative cover-up.   Funny that.

WASHINGTON DC – President Barack Obama tapped Environmental Protection Agency official Gina McCarthy to head the agency on Monday, but a widening probe into the use of secret email addresses by high-level EPA officials could slow her nomination and cause headaches for the administration.

Obama chose McCarthy, current assistant administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation at the EPA, to replace former EPA administrator Lisa Jackson.

Jackson resigned amid growing scrutiny over her use of a secret email address to conduct official business, which watchdog groups say is a possible violation of federal record laws.

Some Republicans see the alleged misconduct as a sign of a larger culture of secrecy and opacity at the EPA.

“The EPA is in desperate need of a leader who will stop ignoring congressional information requests, hiding emails and more from the public, and relying on flawed science,” Sen. David Vitter (R., La.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, said in a statement Monday. “McCarthy has been directly involved in much of that, but I hope she can reverse those practices with Lisa Jackson’s departure. I look forward to hearing answers from her on a number of key issues.”

Several GOP-led House committees have also been probing the “Richard Windsor” email flap and other transparency issues at the agency despite not having a say on who will replace Jackson.

House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology chairman Lamar Smith (R., Texas) and Vitter released a letter to McCarthy Monday seeking the science underpinning new air quality rules and criticizing the agency’s lack of openness.

Vitter has several outstanding requests for information regarding the science behind the agency’s regulations, which the EPA has thus far refused to disclose.  (continue reading)