Lashing Out Against Nonpartisan Organization, Pruitt Asserts EIP is an “alt-EPA” Comprised of “a Group of Employees that Worked for Obama”
Washington, D.C. – Criticizing a nonpartisan watchdog organization that has raised questions about his frequent taxpayer-funded travel back to his home state, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt incorrectly called the Environmental Integrity Project an “alt-EPA” comprised of “a group of employees that worked for Obama.”
Pruitt made his statements about the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) during an interview with Fox 25 News in Oklahoma on Thursday.
In a letter that EIP Executive Director Eric Schaeffer, former EPA Director of Civil Enforcement, sent to Pruitt today, Schaeffer said: “Your statement is incorrect, or misleading at best. I joined EPA in 1990 and left the Agency in February of 2002, when George W. Bush was President…. I am proud of my service as a career (non-political) employee of EPA who served under both Republican and Democratic Presidents and political appointees. But I left the federal government more than fifteen years ago and never worked for President Obama’s Administration in any capacity.”
Only four of EIP’s 20 employees worked for the federal government during the Obama Administration: One EIP analyst worked as a contractor for EPA in 2014; and a second analyst (on maternity leave since May) worked as a paralegal for the U.S. Department of Justice from 2008 through 2011. Two staff also worked for several months each as EPA interns during President Obama’s tenure.
On Monday, EIP sent a request to the EPA Office of Inspector General asking for an investigation of EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s extensive travel to his home state of Oklahoma. The request followed the organization’s investigation of EPA records, which show that Pruitt spent almost half of his days this spring in Oklahoma or on trips that included stops in his home state. The airfare for these trips cost taxpayers more than $12,000, with most of that covering travel to and from the administrator’s home state.
The records, obtained by EIP through a Freedom of Information Act request, show a total of 48 out of 92 days in March, April and May in which Pruitt was travelling. Forty-three of those travel days were spent in Oklahoma or heading to or from Pruitt’s home state.
Excessive travel to one’s home, on the taxpayer’s dime, has raised ethical red flags in the past with the EPA Inspector General’s Office.
In a report issued on September 22, 2015, EPA’s Office of Inspector General criticized a former EPA regional administrator for scheduling 51 out of 88 trips over a 27 month period, or 58 percent of the total, to locations near his residence in Orange County, California. The Inspector General questioned whether, “some of this travel was essential to performance of the agency,” after comparing these records to the travel habits of other regional administrators. Administrator Pruitt’s records show that trips to Oklahoma accounted for a much greater percentage than in the California case: 43 out of Pruitt’s 48 travel days this spring, or 90 percent of the total.
“It seems fair to ask whether all of Administrator Pruitt’s trips – and the money they cost taxpayers – are essential to performance of the agency,” Schaeffer said. “It is also fair to ask how much additional money is spent to fly his entourage of security guards back and forth to his home state if that is where the Administrator is going to spend half his time.
Schaeffer joined EPA in 1990, when George H.W. Bush was President and William Reilly the Administrator. He left EPA in February of 2002, when George W. Bush was President and Governor Christine Whitman served as EPA’s Administrator.
EIP’s Deputy Director, Mary Greene, served at EPA from February of 1993 to May of 2005, and left before Obama took office. Beyond the employees noted above, there are no other former EPA employees on our staff, and no other former government employees who worked in any capacity under the Obama Administration.
Media Contact: Tom Pelton, Environmental Integrity Project, tpelton@environmentalintegrity.org
