Research Cited

Today, Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.), top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, released the following statement regarding Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter’s request to the state Supreme Court to delay the release of documents that former Oklahoma Attorney General, and current Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator, Scott Pruitt has refused to disclose for over two years.

Oklahoma’s new attorney general says he needs more time to comply with a judge’s order to release thousands of documents related to the relationship that new Environmental Protection Agency leader Scott Pruitt had with energy companies during his tenure as Oklahoma’s top lawyer.

The Oklahoma attorney general’s office has asked the state’s highest court to block the release of more emails between energy companies and Scott Pruitt, the state’s former top cop who became Environmental Protection Agency chief.

After sitting on an open records request for more than a year, the Oklahoma attorney general’s office – occupied until a week ago by Scott Pruitt, now head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – now says it’s too busy to release more of the emails showing Pruitt’s cozy relationship with the fossil fuel industry. EWG President Ken Cook said he wasn’t surprised.

Despite court orders and a missed deadline, thousands of emails from the former Oklahoma Attorney General still haven’t been released.

The article, “Emails: EPA’s Pruitt cozy with fossil fuel industry” by Michael Biesecker and Jason Dearen (Feb. 23), highlights that the line between our federal government and fossil-fuel interests is paper thin.

A slew of e-mails revealed just yesterday show the disturbing ties between newly-appointed EPA Chief Scott Pruitt and heavy industry.

This week Scott Pruitt gave his first address as the new head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Strikingly absent from his speech: the environment. He barely mentioned it. Instead, he talked about being excited to be in a city with a Major League Baseball team, while thanking long-time employees of the agency.