Pruitt Actually Lived in a Fossil Fuel Lobbyist’s Townhouse

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, ABC News reported that for much of EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s first year in DC, he lived in the townhouse co-owned by the wife of fossil fuel lobbyist Steven Hart. Hart’s lobbying firm reportedly represents fossil fuel companies pushing “liquid natural gas” -- a dirty fuel that Pruitt has openly advocated for, including on a taxpayer funded trip to Morocco. Hart’s lobbying firm lobbies on behalf of Cheniere Energy Inc. which owns the only active Liquid Natural Gas export plant in the United States at the time of Pruitt’s Morocco trip. Hart is Chairman and CEO of Williams and Jensen, a firm that, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, also represents Exxon Mobil and Norfolk Southern, which paid the firm to lobby Congress on “issues affecting coal usage, oil production, and transportation, including EPA regulation” according to ABC.

At present time, Pruitt, the EPA, nor the Harts will answer questions about how much Pruitt paid for these accommodations.

In response, Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune released the following statement:

"You could not make this up if you were a prize-winning screenwriter: Scott Pruitt, who is supposed to protect our families from pollution, literally lived in a fossil fuel lobbyist’s house. The Administrator of the EPA should stand up to corporate polluters, not live in their homes while pushing their agenda at every turn. Pruitt’s obscene abuse of the public’s trust is so outrageous that even his most vocal critics could not have predicted the common-sense ethical lines he has crossed and the long-standing standards of decency he has violated. He has wasted taxpayer dollars on his own luxury flights, he has operated in secrecy under the same roof as the fossil fuel industry, and he has taken steps to gut public health safeguards that will cost people their lives. Pruitt’s corruption knows no bounds, and he should be fired immediately.”