7,500 pages of emails reveal Scott Pruitt's close ties with oil, gas industry

Oklahoma has turned over about 7,500 pages of emails between former Attorney General Scott Pruitt's office and the energy industry, meeting a deadline set by a judge who ordered the documents' release following more than two years of effort by an advocacy organization.

The Center for Media and Democracy, which went to court to compel the state to release the emails under public records laws, said Wednesday that they offer more details about the close ties that Pruitt, now administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, has long had with the oil and gas industry.

"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," Nick Surgey, the center's research director, said in a statement.

Specifically, the organization noted an effort by one lobbying group to coordinate opposition in 2013 to a federal program requiring that transportation fuel sold in the United States contain a certain amount of renewable fuels. Its rationale was that arguments against the measure would be "more credible coming from a state."

Some of the emails show a close relationship with Devon Energy, a major oil and gas exploration and production company based in Oklahoma City. Much of the correspondence revolves around arranging speaking engagements, obtaining contact information for people at the Office of Management and Budget, and coordinating letter-writing efforts.

At one point, Pruitt's chief of staff, Melissa Houston. wrote in a Jan. 9, 2013 email to William Whitsitt, Devon's vice president for public affairs, "You are so amazingly helpful!!! Thank you so much!!!"

In another email chain on March 21, 2013, Whitsitt writes to Pruitt's office offering a draft of a letter that state attorneys general might sign and send to the then-acting EPA administrator regarding limits on methane emissions. Devon, which has substantial shale gas and shale oil drilling operations, would have been affected by the rule.

"Attached is a potential first-cut draft of a letter a (bipartisan if possible?) group of AGs might send to the acting EPA administrator and some others in the Administration in response to the NE states' notice of intent to sue for more E&P emission regulation," Whitsitt wrote. "It would be a shot across the bow, warning EPA not to not go down a negotiated-rulemaking or wink-at-a sue-and-settle tee-up process."

Whitsitt also offered strategic advice. "If sent, I'd suggest that it be made public, at least to the Hill and to policy community publications," he wrote. "It seems to me this would also be a logical outgrowth of the fossil energy AGs meeting and could be powerful with a number of signers. It is also the kind of thing that in the future could be run through the clearinghouse we discussed. Please let me know what you and General Pruitt think, or if we can help further."

Pruitt's close ties to Devon Energy were first highlighted by the New York Times in 2014, which reported that a letter ostensibly written by the attorney general alleging that the EPA overestimated air pollution from natural gas drilling was actually written by the company's lawyers. "That's actually called representative government in my view of the world," Pruitt later said of the letter.

The emails' release comes just days after Pruitt was confirmed as the EPA's new leader. Senate Democrats and environmental groups made a last-minute push to delay his confirmation vote last week, contending that lawmakers — and the public — ought to be able to review his correspondence with industry officials before putting him in charge of safeguarding the nation's environment. Republicans forged ahead anyway, and Pruitt was confirmed by a 52-46 vote.

In a statement Tuesday, the Oklahoma attorney general's office said it "went above and beyond what is required under the Open Records Act and produced thousands of additional documents that, but for the Court's order, would typically be considered records" outside the scope of the act. "This broad disclosure should provide affirmation that, despite politically motivated allegations, the Office of the Attorney General remains fully committed to the letter and spirit of the Open Records Act," spokesman Lincoln Ferguson said.

The attorney general's office withheld some documents as exempted or privileged and has asked Judge Aletia Haynes Timmons to review whether they should be released, according to the Center for Media and Democracy. Timmons also ordered Pruitt's former office to hand over records related to five outstanding records requests by early next week.

After unsuccessfully seeking the release of Pruitt's correspondence with fossil-fuel representatives under public records laws, the center filed suit over his refusal to turn over the documents and requested the expedited hearing that led to Timmons's order last Thursday. In her ruling, the judge said there had been "an abject failure to provide prompt and reasonable access to documents requested."

Pruitt sued the EPA more than a dozen times during the Obama administration, challenging the agency's authority to regulate toxic mercury pollution, smog, carbon emissions from power plants and the quality of wetlands and other waters. During his tenure in Oklahoma, he dismantled a specialized environmental protection unit that had existed under his Democratic predecessor and established a "federalism unit" to combat what he called "unwarranted regulation and systematic overreach" by Washington.

These moves won him widespread opposition from environmental activists but praise from fellow Republicans and industry representatives, who saw him as a friend to businesses and a staunch opponent of federal regulations they called unnecessary and burdensome.

On Tuesday, Pruitt address EPA employees for the first time as their new boss. He spoke of stepping back from the aggressive regulations of recent years and said that there needn't be a contradiction between environmental protection and energy production or job creation.

"We as an agency and we as a nation can be both pro-energy and jobs and pro-environment," he said. "We don't have to choose between the two."