SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Scott Pruitt speaking at the 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland. (Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr/cc)
'Where Are Scott Pruitt's Emails?' Sierra Club Demands After FOIA Request Turns Up Only One Message Sent by EPA Chief
"The idea that Scott Pruitt sent a single work-related external email during nearly a year leading EPA is absurd on its face."
Jun 22, 2018
The Sierra Club and a government watchdog raised questions over the result of a FOIA request regarding Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Scott Pruitt's four work-related email accounts, after the information released showed that he had sent just one external email over 10 months as head of the agency.
The Sierra Club, which has fought for more than a year to gain information on Pruitt's activities, issued a statement demanding that the EPA search the administrator's personal email accounts for messages related to his work leading the agency, which has been heavily focused on rolling back environmental safeguards and giving favorable treatment to the fossil fuel industry.
"The idea that Scott Pruitt sent a single work-related external email during nearly a year leading EPA is absurd on its face," said Justine Thompson Cowan, an attorney who has led the Sierra Club's lawsuit against the EPA over the agency's failure to respond to FOIA requests in a timely manner. "That's why the Sierra Club is demanding that EPA search Pruitt's personal email accounts for work-related communications, or certify definitively that he does not use personal email or secretive messaging applications like WhatsApp and Signal to circumvent records retention laws."
As Politico reported, Pruitt's personal email accounts should have already been reviewed by the EPA as part of the FOIA request:
Government officials can legally use private email accounts, but agencies are supposed to search those accounts when fulfilling public records requests.
The only external email turned up by the Sierra Club's FOIA request was sent by Pruitt last September to a consultant, regarding an event organized by the American Council for Capital Formation, a free market think tank. In November he also forwarded an email regarding a speaking engagement request to an email account whose name the EPA redacted in its FOIA documents.
"Americans should know what the EPA is doing, why it's doing it and who's influencing those decisions." --Melanie Sloan, American Oversight
Pruitt has been under fire for ethical violations for much of his time as administrator, including the secrecy with which he's conducted government business.
The former Oklahoma attorney general refused to release his public schedule, restricted staffers from entering his office, and ordered a $25,000 soundproof phone booth for his office.
While EPA officials have claimed that Pruitt conducts much of his business via phone, watchdog group American Oversight obtained the administrator's phone records and found that the administrator has gone weeks without using his desk or cell phones at the EPA.
Pruitt's apparent refusal to carry out government business using a government email address, which is subject to public records-keeping laws, is cause for more concern over the interests he is serving as head of the EPA.
"The emails, if they exist, could show what these people want and then those emails could be compared to what the EPA does," Melanie Sloan, a senior adviser at the watchdog group American Oversight, told Politico. "Americans should know what the EPA is doing, why it's doing it, and who's influencing those decisions."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
The Sierra Club and a government watchdog raised questions over the result of a FOIA request regarding Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Scott Pruitt's four work-related email accounts, after the information released showed that he had sent just one external email over 10 months as head of the agency.
The Sierra Club, which has fought for more than a year to gain information on Pruitt's activities, issued a statement demanding that the EPA search the administrator's personal email accounts for messages related to his work leading the agency, which has been heavily focused on rolling back environmental safeguards and giving favorable treatment to the fossil fuel industry.
"The idea that Scott Pruitt sent a single work-related external email during nearly a year leading EPA is absurd on its face," said Justine Thompson Cowan, an attorney who has led the Sierra Club's lawsuit against the EPA over the agency's failure to respond to FOIA requests in a timely manner. "That's why the Sierra Club is demanding that EPA search Pruitt's personal email accounts for work-related communications, or certify definitively that he does not use personal email or secretive messaging applications like WhatsApp and Signal to circumvent records retention laws."
As Politico reported, Pruitt's personal email accounts should have already been reviewed by the EPA as part of the FOIA request:
Government officials can legally use private email accounts, but agencies are supposed to search those accounts when fulfilling public records requests.
The only external email turned up by the Sierra Club's FOIA request was sent by Pruitt last September to a consultant, regarding an event organized by the American Council for Capital Formation, a free market think tank. In November he also forwarded an email regarding a speaking engagement request to an email account whose name the EPA redacted in its FOIA documents.
"Americans should know what the EPA is doing, why it's doing it and who's influencing those decisions." --Melanie Sloan, American Oversight
Pruitt has been under fire for ethical violations for much of his time as administrator, including the secrecy with which he's conducted government business.
The former Oklahoma attorney general refused to release his public schedule, restricted staffers from entering his office, and ordered a $25,000 soundproof phone booth for his office.
While EPA officials have claimed that Pruitt conducts much of his business via phone, watchdog group American Oversight obtained the administrator's phone records and found that the administrator has gone weeks without using his desk or cell phones at the EPA.
Pruitt's apparent refusal to carry out government business using a government email address, which is subject to public records-keeping laws, is cause for more concern over the interests he is serving as head of the EPA.
"The emails, if they exist, could show what these people want and then those emails could be compared to what the EPA does," Melanie Sloan, a senior adviser at the watchdog group American Oversight, told Politico. "Americans should know what the EPA is doing, why it's doing it, and who's influencing those decisions."
The Sierra Club and a government watchdog raised questions over the result of a FOIA request regarding Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Scott Pruitt's four work-related email accounts, after the information released showed that he had sent just one external email over 10 months as head of the agency.
The Sierra Club, which has fought for more than a year to gain information on Pruitt's activities, issued a statement demanding that the EPA search the administrator's personal email accounts for messages related to his work leading the agency, which has been heavily focused on rolling back environmental safeguards and giving favorable treatment to the fossil fuel industry.
"The idea that Scott Pruitt sent a single work-related external email during nearly a year leading EPA is absurd on its face," said Justine Thompson Cowan, an attorney who has led the Sierra Club's lawsuit against the EPA over the agency's failure to respond to FOIA requests in a timely manner. "That's why the Sierra Club is demanding that EPA search Pruitt's personal email accounts for work-related communications, or certify definitively that he does not use personal email or secretive messaging applications like WhatsApp and Signal to circumvent records retention laws."
As Politico reported, Pruitt's personal email accounts should have already been reviewed by the EPA as part of the FOIA request:
Government officials can legally use private email accounts, but agencies are supposed to search those accounts when fulfilling public records requests.
The only external email turned up by the Sierra Club's FOIA request was sent by Pruitt last September to a consultant, regarding an event organized by the American Council for Capital Formation, a free market think tank. In November he also forwarded an email regarding a speaking engagement request to an email account whose name the EPA redacted in its FOIA documents.
"Americans should know what the EPA is doing, why it's doing it and who's influencing those decisions." --Melanie Sloan, American Oversight
Pruitt has been under fire for ethical violations for much of his time as administrator, including the secrecy with which he's conducted government business.
The former Oklahoma attorney general refused to release his public schedule, restricted staffers from entering his office, and ordered a $25,000 soundproof phone booth for his office.
While EPA officials have claimed that Pruitt conducts much of his business via phone, watchdog group American Oversight obtained the administrator's phone records and found that the administrator has gone weeks without using his desk or cell phones at the EPA.
Pruitt's apparent refusal to carry out government business using a government email address, which is subject to public records-keeping laws, is cause for more concern over the interests he is serving as head of the EPA.
"The emails, if they exist, could show what these people want and then those emails could be compared to what the EPA does," Melanie Sloan, a senior adviser at the watchdog group American Oversight, told Politico. "Americans should know what the EPA is doing, why it's doing it, and who's influencing those decisions."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.