Dear Friends of the Environment, URGENT: The Senate is scheduled to vote today on Scott Pruitt's confirmation as head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Please contact your senators if you haven't had a chance to do that and ask them to vote NO. In addition, are names of 7 other senators who may be candidates for voting NO. Pruitt, who is supported by the fossil fuel industry, is not a friend of the EPA and has sued it multiple times. He has neither the knowledge, wisdom nor intent of purpose to serve the best interests of what is needed to create a sustainable and resilient environment. His confirmation will be the first step in weakening EPA's ability to hold corporate (especially fossil fuel) interests accountable, thus weakening communities' ability to protect their land, water and air. When you call, give your name, city, zip code and ask the Senator to vote NO on his confirmation. If you are in Missouri, call these numbers: McCaskill: 202/224-6154 Blunt: 202/224-5721 Leave message on the answering machine if an aide doesn't answer. If an aide answers, give the person your message. Thanks. Ellie elliestock@aol.com Help us get in 5,000 calls to each of the seven Senators who could block Scott Pruitt! ********************************** Here is a sample script of what to say: Hello, my name is _______. I'm calling to urge you to vote no on the nomination of Scott Pruitt for EPA Administrator. Scott Pruitt is openly hostile to the EPA's mission and would do immense damage to the agency. We need a leader at the EPA who will enforce our bedrock environmental protections, not seek to undermine them. Please vote no on Scott Pruitt's nomination tomorrow. Thank you. Dial the numbers below to be connected with the Senators' offices: Senator Gardner: 202-224-5941 Senator Flake: 202-224-4521 Senator Graham: 202-224-5972 Senator Alexander: 202-224-4944 Senator Heller: 202-224-6244 Senator Manchin: 202-224-3954 Senator Heitkamp: 202-224-2043 ********************************** Thank you for taking action to stop Scott Pruitt!
From Center for Media and Democracy Today, the Oklahoma County Court found Trump EPA nominee Scott Pruitt in violation of the state’s Open Records Act. The Center for Media and Democracy filed a lawsuit against Pruitt for improperly withholding public records and the court ordered his office to release thousands of emails in a matter of days. In her ruling, Judge Aletia Haynes Timmons slammed the Attorney General’s office for its “abject failure” to abide by the Oklahoma Open Records Act.
The judge gave Pruitt’s office until Tuesday, February 21, to turn over more than 2,500 emails it withheld from CMD’s January 2015 records request, and just 10 days to turn over an undetermined number of documents responsive to CMD’s 5 additional open records requests outstanding between November 2015 and August 2016. Today’s expedited hearing was granted after CMD, represented by Robert Nelon of Hall Estill and the ACLU of Oklahoma, filed a lawsuit that has driven unprecedented attention to Pruitt’s failure to disclose his deep ties to fossil industry corporations. On Friday, Pruitt is expected to face a full Senate vote on his nomination to run the EPA. On February 10, Pruitt’s office finally responded to the oldest of CMD’s nine outstanding Open Records Act requests but provided just 411 of the more than 3,000 emails they had located, withholding thousands of emails relevant to the request and still failing to respond to CMD’s eight other outstanding requests. On February 14 CMDfiled a status report with the judge detailing the scope of missing documents, including 27 emails that were previously turned over to The New York Times in 2014. “Scott Pruitt broke the law and went to great lengths to avoid the questions many Americans have about his true motivations,” said Nick Surgey, CMD’s director of research. “Despite Pruitt’s efforts to repeatedly obfuscate and withhold public documents, we’re all wiser to his ways and the interests he really serves. The work doesn’t stop here to make sure communities across the country have the information they need to hold him accountable to the health and safety of our families.” Ahead of today’s hearing, Senators Carper, Whitehouse, Merkley, Booker, Markey and Duckworth – all members of the EPW committee – weighed in on the case, urging the Oklahoma court to require the Office of the Oklahoma Attorney General to release documents relevant to CMD’s open record requests as a matter of “federal importance.” In a letter to the OK Court, the Senators stated: "We are providing this information to the Court today because we have concluded [the] pending Open Records Act requests may be the only means by which the Senate and the general public can obtain in a timely manner critical information about Mr. Pruitt's ability to lead the EPA." "We need to understand whether . . . Mr. Pruitt engaged with the industries that he will be responsible for regulating if he is confirmed as Administrator in ways that would compromise his ability to carry out his duties with the complete impartiality required." Pruitt’s continued lack of transparency extends from a difficult nomination process in which research from CMD demonstrated Pruitt’s repeated pattern of obfuscating ties to deep-pocketed, corporate interests. At his hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, Pruitt faced a series of questions about his private meetings with major fossil fuel companies while chair of the Republican Attorneys General Association and fundraising for the Rule of Law Defense Fund. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse concluded his questioning telling Pruitt his testimony “just doesn’t add up.” Despite failing to respond to any records requests for the past two years, Pruitt told U.S. Senators last week to file more open records requests with his office to answer 19 outstanding questions from his confirmation hearing. After Democratic Senators twice boycotted the EPW Committee vote due to concerns over Pruitt’s conflicts of interests and failure to fulfill open records requests, Republicans resorted to suspending Committee rules to advance his nomination.