Surprise! Pruitt Emails Reveal Industry "Fawning" Over AG's Attacks On EPA, 110-Proof Venality
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One Democratic senator who voted against Pruitt, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, said this information should have been available long ago. "Seeing industry representatives fawning over Pruitt’s efforts to attack the EPA, it’s clear that this information should have been closely examined by the Senate as we considered his nomination to run that agency," Whitehouse said in a statement.
Overall, the emails further support the findings from a Pulitzer Prize-winning 2014 series in the New York Times that first revealed Pruitt's ties to the energy industry. For example, on at least one occasion, Pruitt put an energy company's complaint onto state letterhead, making it appear as if it were coming directly from the attorney general. The more than 6,000 pages of emails show that Pruitt had many interactions with groups linked to Charles G. and David H. Koch, whose fossil fuel businesses and conservative groups have been a major source of funding for Republicans.
The Kochs have long supported groups that question mainstream climate science findings. During his confirmation hearing and subsequent answers to written questions, Pruitt denied that global warming is a hoax but questioned whether human emissions of greenhouse gases were the main cause of such warming.
One email, sent to Pruitt by Matt Ball of the Koch-funded group Americans for Prosperity, thanked him for his work fighting the Obama administration's EPA. “Thank you to your respective bosses and all they are doing to push back against President Obama’s EPA and its axis with liberal environmental groups to increase energy costs for Oklahomans and American families across the states,” the email stated. “You both work for true champions of freedom and liberty!” the email said, according to the Times.
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http://mashable.com/2017/02/22/scott-pruitt-emails/#_HZxdHPV7aqj