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Oklahoma AG Scott Pruitt Says ‘Alliance’ With Energy Industry Wasn’t Secret

Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt prepares to greet Gov. Mary Fallin at the 2013 State of the State address at the state Capitol.
Joe Wertz
/
StateImpact Oklahoma
Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt prepares to greet Gov. Mary Fallin at the 2013 State of the State address at the state Capitol.

Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt confirmed Monday that he has worked with the energy industry to push back against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Obama administration’s regulatory agenda, but denied how The New York Times characterized those efforts, which were detailed in a story published over the weekend.

The Journal Record's Marie Price asked Pruitt to respond to Sunday’s Times story.

“It should come as no surprise that I am working diligently with Oklahoma energy companies, the people of Oklahoma and the majority of attorneys general to fight the unlawful overreach of the EPA and other federal agencies,” Pruitt wrote in an emailed statement. This was the only language in his response that touched on any of the allegations in the article. He said the administration’s efforts opposing fossil fuels are shortsighted and unconstitutional and he will continue to fight them every step of the way.

Pruitt told The Oklahoman's Randy Ellishe doesn't believe there's anything secretive about what he's done, and his office has been very transparent about its response to federal overreach.

Pruitt said he strongly believes the Obama administration has exceeded its regulatory powers on a wide range of issues including health care, banking, endangered species and energy. The attorney general said he has consistently shown his willingness to work with constituents and others who share his concerns about federal overreach. “Clearly, this administration has had anti-fossil fuel mentality,” Pruitt said, accusing the federal government of interfering in oil and gas regulatory matters that fall within the purview of state government. “That’s a state interest that has to be protected and we’ve been unapologetic about that,” he said.

In his war against federal government overreach, Pruitt has signed his name on letters to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency drafted by lawyers for Devon Energy, and joined a “group aligned” with Continental Resources billionaire CEO Harold Hamm “to sue the Interior Department over its plan to consider adding animals such as the lesser prairie chicken to the endangered species list.”

For Mr. Pruitt, the benefits have been clear. Lobbyists and company officials have been notably solicitous, helping him raise his profile as president for two years of the Republican Attorneys General Association, a post he used to help start what he and allies called the Rule of Law campaign, which was intended to push back against Washington. That campaign, in which attorneys general band together to operate like a large national law firm, has been used to back lawsuits and other challenges against the Obama administration on environmental issues, the Affordable Care Act and securities regulation. The most recent target is the president’s executive action on immigration. “We are living in the midst of a constitutional crisis,” Mr. Pruitt told energy industry lobbyists and conservative state legislators at a conference in Dallas in July, after being welcomed with a standing ovation. “The trajectory of our nation is at risk and at stake as we respond to what is going on.”

For his part, Pruitt told the Times his close relationship with the energy industry stems from his desire “to gather information from experts, while defending his state’s longstanding tradition of self-determination.”

Pruitt’s role in the Rule of Law campaign and the Republican Attorney Generals Association was born out of a desire for the AG’s to “band together” like they did in challenging the Affordable Care Act, the Times reports. One of Pruitt’s big promoters was Andrew P. Miller, a former Virginia attorney general who now represents energy, mining and utility companies.

Mr. Miller’s pitch to Mr. Pruitt became a reality early last year at the historic Skirvin Hilton Hotel in Oklahoma City, where he brought together an extraordinary assembly of energy industry power brokers and attorneys general from nine states for what he called the Summit on Federalism and the Future of Fossil Fuels. The meeting took place in the shadow of office towers that dominate Oklahoma City’s skyline and are home to Continental Resources, a leader in the nation’s fastest-growing oil field, the Bakken formation of North Dakota, as well as Devon Energy, which drilled 1,275 new wells last year. More liberal attorneys general, such as Douglas F. Gansler, Democrat of Maryland, did not participate. “Indeed, General Gansler would in all likelihood try to hijack your summit,” Mr. Miller wrote to Mr. Pruitt in an email. “At best you would be left to preside over a debate, rather than a call to arms.”

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StateImpact Oklahoma is a partnership among Oklahoma’s public radio stations and relies on contributions from readers and listeners to fulfill its mission of public service to Oklahoma and beyond. Donate online.

Joe was a founding reporter for StateImpact Oklahoma (2011-2019) covering the intersection of economic policy, energy and environment, and the residents of the state. He previously served as Managing Editor of Urban Tulsa Weekly, as the Arts & Entertainment Editor at Oklahoma Gazette and worked as a Staff Writer for The Oklahoman. Joe was a weekly arts and entertainment correspondent for KGOU from 2007-2010. He grew up in Bartlesville, Okla. and studied journalism at the University of Central Oklahoma.
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