Anti-secrecy lawsuits soaring against Pruitt's EPA
Freedom of Information Act litigation is pouring in as the agency refuses to divulge details about the administrator's activities and travels.
By EMILY HOLDEN 02/26/2018 05:01 AM EST
The Environmental Protection Agency has experienced a huge surge in open records lawsuits since President Donald Trump took office, an analysis of data reviewed by POLITICO shows — a trend that comes amid mounting criticism of EPA's secrecy about Administrator Scott Pruitt’s travels, meetings and policy decisions. The legal attacks also reflect widespread interest in the sweeping changes Pruitt is enacting.
The suits have come from open government groups, environmentalists and even conservative organizations that have run into a wall trying to pry information out of Pruitt’s agency. The documents they’re seeking involve a broad swath of decisions, ranging from EPA’s reversals of the Obama administration’s landmark climate change and water rules to pesticide approvals and plans for dealing with the nation’s most polluted toxic waste sites.
Several of the cases involve requests for the administrator’s schedules and travel records, which EPA released routinely under past administrations but now refuses to make public except in response to lawsuits. Pruitt has drawn criticism for withholding information about those matters, and for the expenses he has run up by demanding round-the-clock security, installing an eavesdropping-proof chamber in his office and flying first class to avoid potential threats from critics in the coach cabins.
All told, plaintiffs have filed 55 public records lawsuits against EPA since Trump's inauguration, according to POLITICO's review of a database of cases compiled by The FOIA Project, an initiative run by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.
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https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/26/pruitt-epa-secrecy-lawsuits-environment-355842
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