So what? Pruitt told Congress he used only one government email address during his time in that office.
During the nomination process, senators sought clarity on Pruitt's email use during his time in office. News organizations, including most notably the New York Times in this Pulitzer-winning piece in 2014, used Pruitt's email records to establish his relationship with fossil-fuel industry representatives, including those for Oklahoma City-based Devon Energy. The most striking anecdote from that story involves Pruitt copying a letter drafted by Devon lawyers, which decried Obama-era regulations on natural- gas wells, and sending it under his own letterhead to the EPA.
Ever since then, Oklahoma's Office of the Attorney General has been tightfisted when it comes to open-records request. Following that reporting, the Center for Media and Democracy first submitted an open-records request in January 2015 for Pruitt's records. It took over two years -- and a judge's order -- for the office to cough up any documents to CMD.
In a statement, EPA spokesperson Jahan Wilcox said: “At his confirmation hearing and in a subsequent letter to the EPW Committee sent on May 5, Administrator Pruitt said that he has state-provided email accounts, which are government email addresses that are recoverable, public and transparent.”
The EPA said Pruitt referred to using "state-provided email accounts" — plural — in a May letter to the Senate. The letter did not further specify the number of government email addresses he had.
Play the tape: When asked about his email use as Oklahoma's top prosecutor, Pruitt told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee during the confirmation process that “I have used two email addresses since becoming Attorney General of Oklahoma. I use a personal email address for personal email, and an official email address for official business.”
Pruitt is not the only member of President Trump's Cabinet to be probed for inconsistencies in their confirmation testimony. On Wednesday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions was pressed by Democratic senators to explain why he claimed to have never met with a Russian official during the presidential campaign. Today, Pruitt is scheduled to testify about the EPA's proposed budget before a House Appropriations subcommittee.
A batch of emails recently acquired by a watchdog group, the CMD shows that Pruitt used two addresses from the Oklahoma attorney general's office: scott.pruitt@oag.ok.gov and esp@oag.ok.gov. Documents the nonprofit watchdog received through an open-records request show Pruitt's name associated with both the “scott.pruitt” and “esp” handles, the latter being initials for the former Oklahoma attorney general's full name, Edward Scott Pruitt.
This is not the first time an apparent discrepancy in Pruitt's testimony concerning his email use has emerged. In February, the CMD published emails that showed Pruitt used his personal email address for state government work, which Pruitt also told the Senate he did not do, forcing Pruitt to clarify his testimony in a May letter to the Environment and Public Works Committee.
“This response was based on the best information available at the time and having only four days to complete approximately 1,100 written questions and subparts,” Pruitt wrote to the senators, maintaining that he did not mean to mislead Congress.
The worry now: It's that Pruitt's EPA will, similarly, be less-than-100-percent-compliant with requests under the Freedom of Information Act, the federal open-records law. FOIA is one of the most powerful tools for not just journalists, but corporations too, for understanding how the EPA and other federal agencies make decisions.
Though, if that worry about Pruitt comes to fruition, it may be business as usual following Obama's EPA. It's not as though the Obama administration was particularly transparent when it came to FOIA requests. According to the Associated Press, the EPA denied 458 out of 468 expediting requests under FOIA in 2013.
SHOOTING UPDATE:
--House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) was still listed in critical condition Wednesday night following a shooting at a practice for the annual congressional baseball game. MedStar Washington Hospital Center, where Scalise is being treated, said the bullet fractured bones and hit internal organs and that he will require “additional operations.” Law enforcement officials identified 66-year-old James T. Hodgkinson from Illinois, who appeared to be angry at President Trump, as the lone gunman behind Wednesday's attack that injured Scalise and four others. Hodgkinson died from gunshot wounds from an exchange of gunfire with police. Capitol police officer Crystal Griner who was injured in the attack was in "good condition" after being shot in the ankle, and another officer David Bailey was released after being treated for a minor injury. Congressional staffer, Zach Barth, who was shot in the leg was released from the hospital and lobbyist Matt Mika was listed in critical condition after surgery as of Wednesday afternoon. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle called for unity following the attack. An emotional Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tx) praised the Capitol police for their heroism after the shooting.
--Trump, joined by first lady Melania Trump, visited Scalise at the hospital last night and called for prayers for the lawmaker, tweeting he was “in very tough shape.” But tonight's charity baseball game will still go on -- Scalise's Louisiana colleague Rep. Cedric L. Richmond (D) said "he absolutely would want the game to continue.” Lawmakers applauded House Speaker Paul D. Ryan's announcement on the floor that the game would continue. "We’re united, not as Republicans and Democrats but as United States representatives," Barton said Wednesday evening alongside fellow congressional baseball manager Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) Louisiana State University, Scalise's alma mater, is sending lawmakers hats and t-shirts to wear during the game. CNN reported Thursday morning that the Louisiana Republican was hoping to watch the game from the hospital. The president will not be attending Thursday night's game due to security concerns.
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-- The Michigan attorney general’s office charged two top health officials for their roles in the ongoing Flint water crisis. On Wednesday, Nick Lyon, head of the state’s Department of Health and Human Service, was charged with involuntary manslaughter and misconduct, and the state’s chief medical executive, Eden Wells, was charged with obstruction of justice and lying to a police officer, The Post’s Brady Dennis reported.
From Brady: “While much of the attention in Flint has focused on the lead-tainted water that exposed thousands of young children to potential long-term health risks, the crisis also has been linked to an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease that contributed to at least a dozen deaths. Those cases ultimately led to the charges Wednesday for Lyon, as well as for the state’s chief medical executive, Eden Wells.”
Attorney General Bill Schuette also added new felony charges against four defendants who had been charged in earlier phases of the investigation. The new charges bring the total to 51 criminal charges against 15 individuals.
According to charging documents, Lyon knew of the Legionnaires outbreak early in 2015 but “did not notify the public until a year later.” The documents add that the health director “willfully disregarded the deadly nature” of the disease and later said “[we] can’t save everyone,” and “everyone has to die of something.”
Lyon allegedly also “refused an early offer of help from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and hindered scientists from researching whether the spike in Legionnaires’ cases was linked to the city’s switch to water from the Flint River,” Brady reported.
Investigators in the crisis believe Lyon’s lack of action led to the 2015 death of 85-year-old Robert Skidmore. The Legionnaires outbreak ultimately led to 12 deaths in the city.
Schuette reiterated the importance of the investigation in a series of tweets after the charges were announced:
Meanwhile, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) tweeted a video statement Wednesday afternoon defending Lyon and Wells and insisting they “have my full faith and confidence” and will remain in their roles in the state’s health department:
The Green Party tweeted calling Snyder’s defense of the top health official “disgusting:”
Mona Hanna-Attisha, the pediatrician who initially exposed Flint’s lead-laced drinking water, noted Wednesday that “after my research went public, and the state went after me, Dr. Wells was critical in getting her colleagues in the Snyder administration to finally understand and respond to the gravity of the crisis.”
-Paulina Firozi
-- A rift between Western and Midwestern Senate Republicans: Sen. Deb Fischer, a Republican representing corn-growing Nebraska, has a bill in front of the Senate EPW panel that would allow higher ethanol fuel blends to be used year-round. Right now, those higher blends aren't allowed during the summer because of the fuel's volatility, which at times can strain engines.
But Sen. John Barrasso, a Republican representing a big oil, gas and coal producer, Wyoming, opposes the bill. In a committee hearing Wednesday, he weakened its chance of passage by saying: "In Wyoming, folks want fuel with less, not more, ethanol. They have seen what ethanol does to small engines and boat engines."
-- The Trump administration has delayed for two years a pair of rules aimed at limiting the release of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from U.S. oil and gas operations, The Post's Juliet Eilperin reports. Let's break down the two rules:
- The first is an Obama-era EPA rule limiting emission of methane and smog-forming pollutants from new or modified oil and gas wells.
- The second is an Obama-era Interior Department rule limiting methane burned off from drilling operations (new or old) on federal and tribal lands.
If that second rule sounds familiar, it's because congressional Republicans attempted to roll it back themselves through a tool, little used until Trump took office, called the Congressional Review Act. That law allows Congress to strike down recently issued rules from a previous presidential administration through a simple-majority vote in the House and Senate. The effort came just one vote shy of success in the Senate, after three Republicans balked at supporting it.
If Republicans in Congress had succeeded, no future administration could have issued a substantively similar rule without congressional approval under the CRA. At the very least now, environmental and tribal activists say, a future Democratic president could reissue a similar rule.
-- The Trump administration was dealt another blow from the judiciary -- this time unrelated to the "travel ban." On Wednesday, a federal judge ordered the Army Corps of Engineers to reconsider its environmental review of the Dakota Access pipeline, which the judge deemed inadequate. For now, the oil will continue pumping. The Post's Spencer S. Hsu explains:
U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg handed a limited victory to Native American tribes in North Dakota that had challenged the administration’s effort to speed the project, and his dense, 91-page opinion directed both sides to appear before him next Wednesday to decide next legal steps.
While the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers “substantially complied” with federal environmental laws, Boasberg wrote, “it did not adequately consider the impacts of an oil spill on fishing rights, hunting rights, or environmental justice, or the degree to which the pipeline’s effects are likely to be highly controversial.”
Boasberg’s decision comes just weeks after Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners had begun pumping crude oil through the 1,170-mile line carrying North Dakota oil through South Dakota and Iowa to a distribution point in Illinois.
Though it did not receive the media attention that Trump's executive order in January limiting travel from some Muslim-majority countries did, expediting the completion of Dakota Access was something Trump began pushing for during his first week in office.
-- In another sign of no love being lost between blue states and Trump, California, New York and nine other states are suing the federal government for failing to finalize energy-efficiency standards for portable air conditioners, The Post's Chris Mooney reports.
-- On Wednesday evening, the League of Conservation Voters hosted its annual dinner. in Washington. Two former EPA administrators, Clinton's Carol Browner and Obama's Gina McCarthy, spoke during the event.
Here are some of the best lines, via Twitter:
Another from Browner:
In reference to corporate support of the Paris climate deal from candymaker Mars Incorporated and others, McCarthy said:
-- A scary slush. In the Antarctic summer of 2016, scientists observed a melt event on the frozen continent that could be a harbinger for things to come. Chris Mooney reports: "In the Antarctic summer of 2016, the surface of the Ross Ice Shelf, the largest floating ice platform on Earth, developed a sheet of meltwater that lasted for as long as 15 days in some places. The total area affected by melt was 300,000 square miles, or larger than the state of Texas, the scientists report. That’s bad news because surface melting could work hand in hand with an already documented trend of ocean-driven melting to compromise West Antarctica, which contains over 10 feet of potential sea level rise."
Right now, there's no big consequence to the melt event because the slushy water, mapped above, refroze. But the worry is it fits into a pattern predicted by scientists, in which the Ross Ice Shelf melts from both the air above and and the water below. Weakened from the one-two punch, the floating shelf may fracture and allow the glacial ice lodged behind it to flow into the ocean much more rapidly, and raise sea levels.
Today
- EPA head Scott Pruitt will testify before the House Appropriations' Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies on the agency’s proposed budget.
- The Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee will hold a hearing on the 2018 farm bill.
- The Senate Energy and Natural Resources' Committee will hold a hearing on the Forest Service budget request.
- BP’s Group Chief Economist Spencer Dale will speak at the American Gas Associations’ Natural Gas roundtable.
- The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works has scheduled a vote on Kristine Svinicki’s renomination to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
- Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke continues his four-day visit to New England with meetings in Maine.
- The annual Congressional Baseball Game is scheduled to go on tonight starting just after 7 p.m. at Nationals Park, one day after an attack on Republican lawmakers at a practice in Alexandria, Va.
Coming Up
- Later this month, the U.S. Energy Information Administration will host its 2017 EIA Energy Conference in Washington D.C.
- Energy Secretary Rick Perry is scheduled to testify before the House Appropriations’ Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies on June 20 on the department’s proposed budget.
- The House Committee on Natural Resources is scheduled to hold an oversight hearing with Zinke on June 22 on the department’s spending priorities and proposed budget.
The Post's Devlin Barrett, Adam Entous, Ellen Nakashima and Sari Horwitz reported last night that the special counsel overseeing the Russia probe is now investigating Trump for possible obstruction of justice:
Watch lawmakers recall the events Wednesday morning at the shooting at a congressional baseball practice:
President Trump visited Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) in the hospital on Wednesday night:
Researchers plan to relocate beluga whale stranded in Canadian river:
Watch a fact-check of President Trump's claim that Americans 'built the Golden Gate Bridge in four years and the Hoover Dam in five':