Thousands of emails detail EPA head’s close ties to fossil fuel industry

Scott Pruitt - "chummy" relationship
with fossil fuel industry. 

In his previous role as Oklahoma’s attorney general, the Environmental Protection Agency’s new administrator regularly huddled with fossil fuel firms and electric utilities about how to combat federal environmental regulations and spoke to conservative political groups about what they called government “overreach,” according to thousands of pages of emails made public Wednesday.

“The newly released emails reveal a close and friendly relationship between Scott Pruitt’s office and the fossil fuel industry, with frequent meetings, calls, dinners and other events,” said Nick Surgey, research director for the Center for Media and Democracy, which has sued to compel the release of the emails.

The emails highlight an often-chummy relationship between Pruitt’s office and Devon Energy, a major oil and gas exploration and production company based in Oklahoma City. The correspondence makes clear that top officials at the company met often with Pruitt or people who worked for him. Devon representatives also helped draft — and redraft — letters for Pruitt to sign and send to federal officials in an effort to stave off new regulations.

Read The Washington Post story - “Thousands of emails detail EPA head’s close ties to fossil fuel industry.”

EPA Nominee Pruitt Ordered to Produce Documents About Fossil Fuel Ties.

Scott Pruitt - details of his relationship
 with the fossil fuel industry. 

An Oklahoma judge on Thursday ordered the state's attorney general, Scott Pruitt, to quickly release thousands of pages of documents after years of delay. 

The records could reveal details of his relationship with the fossil fuel industry, which he will be in charge of regulating nationwide once confirmed as head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

The ruling, in response to a public records request from an advocacy group, came a day before a planned Senate vote to confirm Pruitt as Donald Trump's chief of the Environmental Protection Agency. The state judge gave Pruitt's office until Tuesday to produce the records.

Senate Democrats who have been seeking some of the same records tried to delay the confirmation vote, arguing that the documents requested could shed light on Pruitt's ties to industries he would be charged with regulating as EPA administrator.

Oklahoma district judge Aletia Haynes Timmons issued the order after agreeing to expedite a lawsuit brought by The Center for Media and Democracy ahead of the confirmation vote. Timmons ruled that "there was an abject failure to provide prompt and reasonable access to documents request by plaintiff.”

CMD sued Pruitt earlier this month in Oklahoma state court, saying he had failed to produce public records in response to nine requests the group had submitted dating back to 2015.

Read the Inside Climate News story - “EPA Nominee Pruitt Ordered to Produce Documents About Fossil Fuel Ties.”