Investigating Power
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.
Climate, Democracy, Environment
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.
Information requested by the Center for Media and Democracy nearly two years ago tells a much different story. That information, which was released last week, was in connection with the botched execution of Clayton Lockett and a related case involving the availability of certain lethal injection drugs in which Pruitt’s office “misrepresented facts” – no surprise there.
Climate, Democracy, Environment
The emails, requested by the Center for Media and Democracy in January 2015, show a friendly, close relationship, marked by happy hours and exchanged favors, between Pruitt’s office and a number of oil and gas executives.
Climate, Democracy, Environment
A liberal group this week released thousands of pages of emails, obtained under an open records law, detailing communications between new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head Scott Pruitt and various energy and conservative interest groups.
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt recently took part in the Conservative Political Action Conference this past week that included various Republicans, and it was here that he reported some major cuts would be made in his department concerning environmental regulations. Of course, the Barack Obama-era regulations on the environment are not quite agreed on by Republicans, especially the Trump administration. However, a bulk of the American people disagrees with Trump on his stance regarding the environment.
On Saturday the newly confirmed head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) [official website] Scott Pruitt [EPA bio] announced that they would be rolling back some Obama era regulations as soon as next week. When speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference [official website] (CPAC) on Saturday, Pruitt took a tone that the previous administration’s policies had a negative effect on economic growth and led many people to want the agency eliminated completely.
Immediately upon taking office, Hunter was confronted with a court order that gave until 5 p.m. last Tuesday to fulfill an Open Records Act request that had been pending with the attorney general’s office for more than two years.
The request from the Center for Media and Democracy was for email exchanges between Pruitt and fossil fuel industries. The attorney general’s office complied with the court order by releasing about 7,000 pages of emails.
Climate, Democracy, Environment
Environmental concerns also are factors. Industry analysts expect some easing of coal mining regulations under the leadership of former Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt at the EPA. Emails released this week reveal Pruitt has had close ties to the fossil fuel industry and has coordinated with fossil fuel companies to work against federal regulations, according to published reports.
Climate, Democracy, Environment
Mr. Pruitt, Oklahoma’s former attorney general and the newly installed head of the EPA, has become the top target for environmentalists, who argue that he is too closely tied to the oil and gas industry. At the heart of that argument are tens of thousands of pages of emails from Mr. Pruitt’s time as attorney general in Oklahoma. Documents that have been released show his office was in near constant contact with leading energy companies, and the two sides worked in concert in the fight against Obama-era environmental regulations.