Description: Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to compel disclosure of records concerning EPA’s process to ensure that Administrator Scott Pruitt was in compliance with federal ethics regulations and obligations with respect to participation in rulemaking.
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California v. EPA
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 08/11/2017 Complaint Download Complaint filed. California Sought Records on EPA Procedures for Avoiding Appearance of Lack of Impartiality in Pruitt’s Involvement in Rulemaking Processes. The State of California filed a lawsuit in the federal district court for the District of Columbia alleging that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had not complied with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in response to California’s request for records concerning EPA’s process to ensure that Administrator E. Scott Pruitt was in compliance with federal ethics regulations and obligations and EPA’s policies and procedures for determining who would assume the Administrator’s powers if Pruitt was recused or disqualified from participating in a matter. California said that as EPA Administrator, Pruitt became responsible for implementing regulations he had worked to overturn as Oklahoma Attorney General “just moments earlier,” including rules limiting greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and the oil and gas sector. California asserted that Pruitt’s “public attacks on the legal and factual justification EPA provided for many rules … raise a question regarding his ability to participate in administrative processes and rulemakings concerning these same rules with the impartiality required by federal law.”