Merkley, Whitehouse Point Out Senior EPA Official Violates President Shitstain's "Ethics Rules"
Lawmakers are calling on Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt to hand over information about a key agency appointee, citing her record as an energy industry lobbyist as recently as the first quarter of this year.
Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) sent a letter to Pruitt on Tuesday, challenging his appointment of Elizabeth "Tate" Bennett as deputy associate administrator of EPA's Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations. In that role, Bennett is the agency's primary point person and liaison with Congress and state governments.
The senators cited President Donald Trump's executive order on ethics, writing: "Because of her activities as a registered federal lobbyist she cannot work on legislation, communicate with Congress, or coordinate and monitor regional, state and local responses to a wide-range of major issues faced by EPA."
Bennett worked for two years as a lobbyist for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, which represents more than 900 customer-owned rural utilities. The association, whose members have been historically reliant on coal, has pushed heavily against emissions-cutting regulations, including the Clean Power Plan. The senators say that Bennett's appointment violates Trump's executive order on ethics, which says appointees can't "participate in the specific issue area" for which they lobbied in the two years prior to their appointment. Trump issued the order during his second week in office, following up on his oft-repeated campaign pledge to "drain the swamp." Previous presidents had similar ethics orders.
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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/16052017/trump-epa-appointee-lobbyist-electric-utilities-industry-ethics-pledge
