Less than a week after Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt was confirmed to head the nation’s Environmental Protection Agency, Pruitt released a batch of emails under court order to watchdog group Center for Media and Democracy.
“Despite repeated attempts by Pruitt and the Oklahoma AG’s office to stonewall CMD and the public, we’ve won a major breakthrough in obtaining access to public records that shine a light on Pruitt’s emails with polluters and their proxies,” said Nick Surgey, research director at the Center for Media and Democracy in a release. “The newly released emails reveal a close and friendly relationship between Scott Pruitt’s office and the fossil fuel industry, with frequent meetings, calls, dinners and other events.”
The group had sued Pruitt for the emails — thanks to coverage in the New York Times and elsewhere, Pruitt has a famously cozy relationship with the oil and gas industry — but claimed the Oklahoma Attorney General had ignored their request.
Courts eventually ordered Pruitt to release thousands of emails to CMD, but not before he was confirmed to head the EPA, an agency Pruitt himself has sued a number of times.
The entirety of the released emails is available here.
The emails are still being sorted through, but many continue to confirm that Pruitt worked closely with energy companies, like Oklahoma City’s Devon Energy, often signing his name on drafts written by the company.
Pruitt is often referred to in the emails as “General Pruitt.”
CMD has released the emails to the public, effectively crowd-sourcing the fact-finding. Public interest is so high that the website hosting the emails has crashed several times Wednesday morning.