Sierra Club takes EPA to court for failure to respond to Freedom of Information Act Requests

WASHINGTON, DC - The Sierra Club is taking the EPA to court (Filing can be viewed here, with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia) to hold the Agency accountable for its failure, under Scott Pruitt, to respond to basic Freedom of Information Act requests within the timeline required by law, or even to provide estimates of when such requests might be addressed.

“The secrecy around Scott Pruitt and his political staffers is unprecedented, and Americans deserve transparency about their collaboration behind closed doors with corporate polluters to roll back life-saving health and environmental safeguards. But instead of abiding by the law and the Freedom of Information Act, Pruitt’s EPA is stonewalling by engaging in an unprecedented level of obstruction to prevent this information from becoming known by the public,” said Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune.

In an effort to shed light on Pruitt’s secretive and pro-industry efforts to improperly delay or repeal vital EPA regulations and policies that safeguard public health and the environment, Sierra Club submitted requests in mid-June under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) seeking records of the external communications and calendars of Pruitt and other senior staff at the agency. EPA was legally required to provide Sierra Club, within 20 working days of receiving the requests, with determinations about whether the agency would comply with the requests, and to promptly begin producing responsive documents.

Now, over three months later, EPA has yet to provide a determination about whether it will comply with Sierra Club's requests, or even give an estimate about when it will have a determination, let alone produce any responsive records--an unexcused delay that violates the Agency’s clear FOIA obligations.

“These disturbing delays are unprecedented, unjustified, and unlawful. The Sierra Club will hold Scott Pruitt’s EPA accountable to make sure the public learns the truth about his behind-the-scenes efforts to nullify rules and policies that are vital to the Agency’s duty to protect human health and the environment,” said Matthew Miller, Sierra Club staff attorney.

The Sierra Club's difficulty in getting transparent answers from Pruitt's EPA is part of a larger pattern. Many other public interest organizations have similarly submitted dozens of records requests to the agency, and have been similarly been ignored or rejected, often on arbitrary or spurious grounds. Separately, the Sierra Club has been refused traditional and non-controversial “fee waiver” determinations for FOIA requests even when nearly identical requests had previously been granted those waivers.

The Sierra Club will be represented in this matter by Sierra Club staff attorney Matthew Miller and Justine Thompson Cowan, Esq.