When he was the attorney general of Oklahoma, Scott Pruitt led a group of Republican attorneys general in suing the EPA over the Clean Power Plan. In fact, that was the principle reason that Pruitt’s name bubbled to the top of the sludge pot of potential Trump EPA nominees. So this would seem to be a pretty nice case of what goes around, comes around.
Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, leading a 27-member coalition of states, counties, and cities, today filed comments opposing the Trump administration’s “unlawful and unsupported” proposed repeal of of the Clean Power Plan, the first nationwide emission limits on the existing fossil fuel-burning power plants. Attorney General Schneiderman — who has long led the coalition that intervened in defense of the Clean Power Plan — has made clear that he will sue if the Trump administration finalizes the repeal.
And while Schneiderman was hitting from one side, Scott Pruitt was facing still more changes for his panoply of corruption that are connected to the very same subject.
In a letter sent to the EPA on Thursday evening and obtained by HuffPost, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said Pruitt’s statements over the past three months indicating he plans to repeal the Clean Power Plan, an Obama-era rule to limit greenhouse gas emissions from utilities, violate impartiality requirements in the rulemaking process. The letter was signed by eight other states, the District of Columbia, one Florida county and five cities.
Pruitt is directly attacking a policy which he sued before taking over the EPA. And he lived in a house of a lobbyist who has directly benefited lobbied against this regulation. And his primary campaign contributors for his Oklahoma AG run were not only lobbying against this rule, but getting Pruitt to represent them in the Supreme Court.
“The American people are entitled to an impartial decision-maker,” Becerra said in a statement. “EPA Administrator Pruitt simply cannot be that person. He must be recused from any involvement in the EPA’s attempt to repeal the Clean Power Plan.”
Attorney General Schneiderman has been working directly with Robert Mueller. And he has a long history with Donald Trump.
And yet, he’s still there.
And don’t forget that Schneiderman is among those looking to close loopholes that would let Trump use pardons in the Russia investigation. So seeing the New York AG entering into the battle over Pruitt has to make him happy.