The chief justice of Oklahoma’s Supreme Court on Tuesday gave the state’s new attorney general more time to produce thousands of documents related to the relationship that new Environmental Protection Agency leader Scott Pruitt had with energy companies.
Research Cited
As Budget Cuts Loom, Industry Seeks to Save Some EPA Programs
President Donald Trump sent out his budget blueprint to federal agencies Feb. 27, seeking to slash the budget for the EPA and other agencies while boosting defense spending by $54 billion.
The Daily 202
— EPA administrator Scott Pruitt “occasionally” used private email to communicate with staff while serving as Oklahoma’s attorney general, despite recently telling Congress that he always used a state email account for government business. The AP: “Emails released under court order last week in response to a different public records request yielded additional examples where emails were addressed to Pruitt’s private account, including a 2013 exchange with a petroleum industry lobbyist who emailed Pruitt and a lawyer on the attorney general’s staff. That suggests Pruitt made his private email address available to professional contacts outside his office. It is not illegal in Oklahoma for public officials to use private email as long as they are retained and made available as public records. [Still], Pruitt’s use of the private account appears to directly contradict statements he made last month as part of his Senate confirmation.”
Oklahoma City Fox Affiliate Reveals EPA Chief Scott Pruitt Lied to Senate about His Emails
Pruitt is also facing scrutiny for a large batch of emails showing that he closely coordinated with fossil fuel companies to undermine federal environmental safeguards. The Center for Media and Democracy had requested those emails more than two years ago, but Pruitt’s attorney general’s office only turned them over after CMD filed a lawsuit and an Oklahoma judge ruled that Pruitt had been illegally withholding the documents.
A Recap of Scott Pruitt’s First Week at the EPA – and the News Isn’t Good
Last week, we learned more. Additional records released – under court order, after an “abject failure” to respond to a two-year-old open records request from the Center for Media and Democracy – further underscore Pruitt’s troubling pattern of transactional relationships.
Oklahoma Supreme Court Agrees with State AG, Delays Release of Pruitt Emails
The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Tuesday delivered a win for EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, halting the scheduled release of thousands of additional emails from Mr. Pruitt’s time as the state’s attorney general.
Earlier this month the attorney general’s office complied with a lower court’s order and made public more than 7,500 pages of emails. Many of them contained communications between Mr. Pruitt, his deputies and oil-and-gas companies.
Can EPA Chief Scott Pruitt Surprise Everybody?
The Feb. 22 release of thousands of pages of emails from Scott Pruitt, approved by the Senate on Feb. 17 to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), only confirms what many environmentalists feared: the Trump administration will be fossil-fuel friendly to a fault.
‘Time Suck’ Looms as Emails Dog Pruitt
U.S. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has an email problem.
Tucker: Some Conservative Institutions Can’t Deny Climate Change
There has been no need to unpack the winter clothes this year because we haven’t had winter. My second-grader goes to school every morning wearing a cardigan, but she greets me in the afternoon in short sleeves.
Morning Reads: Trump Plans to Slash EPA, State Department Budgets; Pruitt Used a Private Email Account for Government Business
The Pruitt email saga continues –> It now turns out that new EPA head and friend of polluters everywhere Scott Pruitt used a private email address to conduct state business while Oklahoma attorney general, according to a report by Oklahoma City’s Fox TV affiliate. (Lest we forget, in the past, using a private email account messed with a certain public official’s career.) Correspondence on his government email account shows that Pruitt stuck Oklahoma government letterhead on letters to the EPA actually written by fossil fuel lobbyists. Who knows what else lurks in his private emails?
Meanwhile, not all of the emails from Pruitt’s government account have been released — and his successor in the Oklahoma attorney general’s office is attempting to block their release.