WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency says an internal task force appointed to revamp how the nation’s most polluted sites are cleaned up generated no record of its deliberations.
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt in May announced the creation of a Superfund Task Force that he said would reprioritize and streamline procedures for remediating more than 1,300 sites. Pruitt, the former attorney general of Oklahoma, appointed a political supporter from his home state with no experience in pollution cleanups to lead the group.
The task force in June issued a nearly three-dozen page report containing 42 detailed recommendations, all of which Pruitt immediately adopted. The advocacy group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, known as PEER, quickly filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking a long list of documents related to the development of Pruitt’s plan.
After EPA didn’t immediately release any records, PEER sued.
Now, nearly six months after the task force released its report, a lawyer for EPA has written PEER to say that the task force had no agenda for its meetings, kept no minutes and used no reference materials.
Further, there was no written criteria for selecting the 107 EPA employees the agency says served on the task force or background materials distributed to them during the deliberative process for creating the recommendations.
According to EPA, the task force also created no work product other than its final report.
“Pruitt’s plan for cleaning up toxic sites was apparently immaculately conceived, without the usual trappings of human parentage,” said Jeff Ruch, the executive direction of PEER. “It stretches credulity that 107 EPA staff members with no agenda or reference materials somehow wrote an intricate plan in 30 days.”
The task force was led by Albert “Kell” Kelly, whom Pruitt hired at EPA as a senior adviser. Kelly was previously the chairman of Tulsa-based SpiritBank, where he worked as an executive for 34 years.
The Associated Press reported in August that Kelly was barred by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation from working for any U.S. financial institution after officials determined he violated laws or regulations, leading to a financial loss for his bank. The FDIC’s order didn’t detail what Kelly is alleged to have done. Without admitting wrongdoing, he agreed to pay a $125,000 penalty.
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Follow Associated Press environmental reporter Michael Biesecker at http://twitter.com/mbieseck
Most likely because no actual work was done to remediate the Superfund Sites.
Pruitt’s buddies still got paid the full contract amount, and then some…
Thank you PEER for your oversight, since the GOP led congress has completely abdicated it’s role. Only if this gets picked up and run wildly in the press - especially in the states and localities where superfund sites are - will their be any pressure to attempt to get Congress to do something (they won’t).
But perhaps with intense scrutiny (which Pruitt has invited due to his noxious and secretive behavior in his job), more can be learned (and if not reversed, at least highlighted in order to later be remediated - by a later administration) and moved into the public’s collective mind.
Pruitt is stunningly sinister - and appears to be far more competent in avoiding the public eye than his obnoxious counterpart over at Interior.
It’s the Bush years all over again.
Remind me again NeverHillary that there is no difference between the parties. I need to hear it often for reinforcement because it seems like the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.
their contempt for the American people is truly breathtaking
she gave a speech to wall street executives and got paid a lot of money! she had a foundation and trump had a foundation! she was over 40! oh, and emails.