This article includes a copy of the letter that members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce sent to Scott Pruitt, head of the EPA, grilling him on his highly suspicious condo rental arrangement with the wife of an energy lobbyist. The Committee asks Pruitt nine excellent questions that cut right to the heart of this glaring conflict of interest. For example:
- Press reports indicate you solicited use of this property. How did you identify and obtain use of this property? Was the rental publicly advertised, were you contacted by the owner(s) or an intermediary, or did you or anybody operating on your behalf solicit the use of the property? …
- Press reports also indicate that your daughter stayed at the home for a time in another bedroom in the house. Was this bedroom paid for as part of your lease or a separate lease with the owners? If not, how would you explain that this was not a gift? …
- Press reports suggest you spent four days last December in Morocco where you “talked with officials about their interest in importing natural gas” despite the fact that the EPA has no role in overseeing or promoting, U.S. natural gas exports. Williams and Jensen represents a number of clients in the natural gas industry and J. Steven Hart [husband of the condo owner] specifically represented Cheniere Energy, Inc. a producer and exporter of liquefied natural gas. Were you living at this property during the period in which this trip was conceived, planned, or undertaken? …
To me, question 9 is the most incriminating.