Group Raises Concerns Over Pruitt's Ties To Industry

In the release of a new six-page study, one of the nation’s largest environmental organizations raised red flags about Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt’s ties to industry allegedly linked to more than a dozen lawsuits against the Environmental Protection Agency.

The study was released, Jan 12 by the Environmental Defense Fund. It outlines 14 different lawsuits brought by Pruitt, among others, against the EPA. Inside each suit the study shows a convoluted web of donations, political action committees and legal action with links to Pruitt and some of the nation’s largest energy and business industry players.

Pruitt was nominated, in December, by President-Elect Donald Trump to head the EPA. His hearing before the Republican controlled Environment and Public Works Committee is scheduled for next week. The committee was formerly chaired by Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe (R).

The lawsuits against the EPA have made up a large portion of Pruitt’s tenure as the state’s Attorney General. His opponents said they were fueled by a cynical corruption. His supporters, however, insist his motive has always been rooted in states’ rights and pushing back against what they view as unneeded federal involvement. They often site when he took office in 2010, Pruitt dismantled the state’s Environmental Protection Unit, instead replacing it with a Federalism Unit which is “dedicated to representing the interests of the state and challenging the federal government when it has overreached its authority,” according to the Oklahoma Attorney General’s website.

The suits range in topics from fighting to block standards on mercury pollution, blocking President Obama’s efforts to keep air pollution from blocking views at national parks and working to prevent Obama’s Clean Power Plan in three separate suits. Each suits shows funding ties from major energy companies, which in some cases were co-litigators on the suits.

Most notable on the list, Pruitt’s efforts to fight clean air standards on emissions from oil and gas facilities. Among the donors to his campaign were large energy companies Devon Energy, Chesapeake Energy and Exxon Mobile. Exxon Mobile CEO Rex Tillerson is currently waiting to be confirmed as Secretary of State in the Trump administration.

This list of connections is not the first-time Pruitt has been accused of being too close to the energy sector which dominates his home state economy. Pruitt’s office copied a letter written by Devon Energy onto government paper after it was hand delivered by the company’s lobbying chief on 2011. The letter was an accusatory statement against the federal government which energy executives thought was overestimating the amount of air pollution from oil and gas production in Oklahoma.

“The timing of the letter is great, given our meeting this Friday with both the EPA and the White House,” then Devon governmental relations director William F. Whitsitt said in an email. “Please pass along Devon’s thanks to Attorney General Pruitt.”

The study’s release coincided with a letter, obtained by Politico, sent by nine Democratic Senators on the EPW Committee asking EPA chief ethics officer Kevin Minoli to provide a more in depth look at Pruitt’s financial and political financial history. Pruitt passed the Office of Governmental Ethics disclosure requirements Jan. 4, according to OGE documents.

“What assurances will we have that regulated entities did not and will not make contributions for favorable treatment…” the letter said, alleging Pruitt may be a “real risk of pay-for-play arrangements.”

The study also comes one day after two dozen Conservative lobbying groups and PACs endorsed Pruitt’s nomination. Among them are Heritage Action for America, Club for Growth, Energy Policy Network and the American Energy Alliance.

“Mr. Pruitt respects and upholds the Constitution, and understands that many of the nation’s challenges regarding clean air and water are best met at the state and local level. It is, in fact the states that implement many of the nation’s environmental laws,” the letter states.

Pruitt’s supporters have called similar looks at the Attorney General’s past hypocritical.

“The dark money charge is very, very amusing. Because the Democrats on the committee who are attacking him, guess what, they all get dark money,” talk radio host Hugh Hewitt said during a recent broadcast.

Similarly, the group America Rising Squared (AR2), which has been at the forefront of promoting Pruitt’s nomination, recently said in a release that Democrats should return money given to them by environmental groups before continuing to criticize Pruitt.

“This group of Democratic Senators are puppets of the Environmentalist Left and their strings have been activated to oppose Scott Pruitt’s EPA reform efforts,” AR2 Communications Director Jeremy Adler said in the release.

Pruitt’s hearing is scheduled for Jan 18 beginning at 10 a.m. ET.