This morning, the Senate confirmed Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to the Environmental Protection Agency. Pruitt is one of President Donald Trump’s more controversial cabinet nominees – like Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Attorney General Jeff Sessions – mostly because he has spent the last six years suing the EPA … 14 times.
What probably isn’t terribly surprising for someone who has tried to sue the EPA 14 times, is that Pruitt allegedly has deep connections with energy companies and operatives like the Koch Brothers.
In order to clear those allegations up, on the eve of his nomination an Oklahoma state judge ordered Pruitt’s office to release a cache of thousands of emails relating to the energy companies he will soon be regulating. Senate Democrats asked Pruitt to hand over the emails so they could be evaluated in his confirmation hearing, but Pruitt told them to file a standard public records request if they want to see them so bad (where is Julian Assange when you need him?).
In a new political ad, the ACLU vows to keep up their fight to obtain Scott Pruitt’s emails and make sure the public can see just how deep his ties to the energy industry go.
Pruitt’s ties to energy companies are well known, so it’s hard to say if there will be any earth-shattering revelations found in his emails. However, for Democrats weary of an administration that cares very little about climate change, any rallying point they can get behind is good enough for them.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, who is featured in the ad, called the vote to confirm Pruitt “an epic ram job” and called Pruitt “the tool and the minion of the fossil fuel industry.”
“I believe our Republican friends will rue the day that they had this nomination rammed through the Senate on the very day that the emails were being litigated in Oklahoma, in order to get ahead of any counter pressure,” he said.
Tried as they did, Democrats weren’t able to prevent one of the EPA’s sworn enemies form running the department – but on the off chance there is something in Pruitt’s emails that could lead to corruption charges – well hey, it wouldn’t be the first time emails took down a politician.
What probably isn’t terribly surprising for someone who has tried to sue the EPA 14 times, is that Pruitt allegedly has deep connections with energy companies and operatives like the Koch Brothers.
In order to clear those allegations up, on the eve of his nomination an Oklahoma state judge ordered Pruitt’s office to release a cache of thousands of emails relating to the energy companies he will soon be regulating. Senate Democrats asked Pruitt to hand over the emails so they could be evaluated in his confirmation hearing, but Pruitt told them to file a standard public records request if they want to see them so bad (where is Julian Assange when you need him?).
In a new political ad, the ACLU vows to keep up their fight to obtain Scott Pruitt’s emails and make sure the public can see just how deep his ties to the energy industry go.
ACLU: ‘Scott Pruitt Is Not Above the Law’
“Even though the U.S. Senate did have ALL the facts, before they voted, Pruitt failed to release public records from his time as Oklahoma attorney general,” the ad reads. “Including his communications with Koch Industries and other coal, oil and gas corporations.”Pruitt’s ties to energy companies are well known, so it’s hard to say if there will be any earth-shattering revelations found in his emails. However, for Democrats weary of an administration that cares very little about climate change, any rallying point they can get behind is good enough for them.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, who is featured in the ad, called the vote to confirm Pruitt “an epic ram job” and called Pruitt “the tool and the minion of the fossil fuel industry.”
“I believe our Republican friends will rue the day that they had this nomination rammed through the Senate on the very day that the emails were being litigated in Oklahoma, in order to get ahead of any counter pressure,” he said.
Scott Pruitt’s ‘Secretive Alliance’
In 2014 the New York Times published a story that dug into Pruitt’s ties with fossil fuel companies. In the story, titled “Energy Firms in Secretive Alliance with Attorneys General,” the New York Times found that Pruitt’s hard fights against the EPA were usually thanks, almost entirely, to the fossil fuel companies he worked for. Pruitt later defended that “secretive alliance” as being in the best interest for the people in his home state of Oklahoma, which is a huge oil and gas producing state.Tried as they did, Democrats weren’t able to prevent one of the EPA’s sworn enemies form running the department – but on the off chance there is something in Pruitt’s emails that could lead to corruption charges – well hey, it wouldn’t be the first time emails took down a politician.