Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, will recuse himself for one year from lawsuits against the agency that he was involved in as the Oklahoma state attorney general or as part of the conservative Rule of Law Defense Fund.
Pruitt signed the recusal document on Thursday, and the memo was obtained by E&E News on Friday.
The list of cases from which Pruitt will recuse himself include a lawsuit over President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan and cases regarding the Clean Water Rule. He indicated that he will not recuse himself from cases in which Oklahoma only filed an amicus brief.
During his confirmation hearing in the Senate, Pruitt would not say definitively whether he would recuse himself from cases he had been involved in while serving as Oklahoma’s attorney general. At the time, he would only say that he would follow guidance from the EPA’s ethics office.
Though Pruitt will recuse himself from a long list of cases at the EPA, President Donald Trump has signaled he will roll back many Obama-era environmental regulations. Pruitt said that he would not step back from the rule-making process on the matters he listed in the memo.
Only one year? Should be for the whole of your tenure … but you’re a Thug, so it’s okay (in your mind).
My thought exactly. He filed the suit, so the conflict does not simply disappear with time. As long as the suit continues and he remains chief of the defendant agency he sued the conflict of interest remains. One would think this would not have to be spelled out for him… Oh, wait. He knows this already but just wants to orchestrate his suit successfully from the inside.
Political Thuggery. “Conservatives” of today are committing political thuggery and they know it. They are not Republicans – they are Thuglicans … Thugs, for short.
I’m guessing someone pointed out the optics, so he’s trying to slip this in while disguising the one year limit…these lawsuits will take longer than a year. And, I guarantee that his recusal won’t include putting underlings who agree with him over this, so it will be just like he’s running it.
There’s 2% milk and now there’s 2% not awful. Maybe he’s wised up to the fact the Congressional majority has just leapt off the cliff and a Democratic House will not let this crap skate.