Emails: EPA's Pruitt cozy with fossil-fuel industry

WASHINGTON -- While serving as Oklahoma's attorney general, new Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt coordinated closely with fossil-fuel companies and special interest groups working to undermine federal efforts to curb planet-warming carbon emissions, newly released emails show.

More than 7,500 pages were released under court order Tuesday evening after an Oklahoma judge ruled Pruitt illegally had been withholding his correspondence, which is public record under state law, for the last two years.

Pruitt's office was forced to release the emails after he was sued by the Center for Media and Democracy, a left-leaning advocacy group. Other emails still are being held back pending further review by the judge.

The Republican-dominated Senate voted Friday to confirm President Donald Trump's pick to lead EPA. Democrats had sought to delay the vote on Pruitt's confirmation until the requested emails were released, but Republican leaders used their slim majority to push Pruitt through.

The emails show Pruitt and his staff coordinating their legal strategy with oil and gas-industry executives and conservative advocacy groups funded by those profiting from fossil fuels, including the billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch.

While serving as Oklahoma's elected state lawyer for the last six years, Pruitt sued federal agencies more than a dozen times to challenge stricter environmental regulations.

Among the emails is a series of 2013 exchanges between Pruitt's staff and Richard Moskowitz, general counsel for the Washington-based American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers.

The lawyer detailed the industry's plan to seek waivers from the federal rules boosting the use of renewable fuels and asked Pruitt to make a specific legal argument under air pollution regulations known as the National Ambient Air Quality Standards.

The email was copied to Thomas Bates, then Pruitt's first assistant attorney general.

"We think it would be most effective for Oklahoma to file a separate waiver petition that emphasizes 'severe environmental harm,' as this argument is more credible coming from a state with primary responsibility for achieving and maintaining attainment with the NAAQS," Moskowitz wrote.

Moskowitz's email then was forwarded to Pruitt's deputy solicitor general, P. Clayton Eubanks, who replied he knew little about the federal Renewable Fuel Standard and asked for further instructions about what the trade group wanted them to do.

"I think it is safe to say that AG Pruitt has an interest in the issue," Eubanks wrote. "Hopefully I haven't missed the boat too much on these questions but I want to make sure I fully understand what Oklahoma's role will be."

Now working at EPA, Pruitt did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Environmentalists cited Pruitt's close ties to the fossil-fuel industry in opposing his nomination.

Like Trump, Pruitt has questioned the validity of scientific studies showing the Earth is warming and carbon emissions from human activity are the primary cause. As attorney general, Pruitt's office joined a GOP-led multi-state lawsuit seeking to overturn President Barack Obama's plan to limit emissions from coal-fired power plants.

During his confirmation hearing last month, Senate Democrats pressed Pruitt on political donations he had raised from energy companies such as Exxon Mobil and Devon Energy, including "dark money" funneled to groups not required to disclose their donors.

Pruitt's staff also was in close contact with the American Legislative Exchange Council and Americans for Prosperity to coordinate opposition to new EPA regulations. Oil-industry giant Exxon Mobil is a major donor to ALEC, while AFP is closely linked to Koch Industries, which owns petroleum pipelines.