"EPA: Pruitt Declined To Prosecute Fraud Allegations as Okla. AG"

"When his investigators dug into corruption allegations at a Superfund site, Oklahoma State Auditor Gary Jones believed they'd found criminal wrongdoing.

But Scott Pruitt, then Oklahoma's attorney general, didn't agree with Jones about activities at the Tar Creek site. In 2015, a little more than a year after getting Jones' report, he said he wouldn't bring criminal charges.

Two years later, Pruitt runs the whole Superfund program and more as U.S. EPA administrator. He's put Superfund cleanups at the center of his "back to basics" agenda, making his history with the program newly relevant. During his Senate confirmation, Pruitt included Tar Creek in a list of environmental matters he'd handled as attorney general.

But it's difficult to assess his decisionmaking because Pruitt also overruled the state auditor and ordered the investigative report kept secret.

E&E News requested the audit and related documents this summer under state open records laws. Attorney General Mike Hunter, Pruitt's successor, rejected the request."

Mike Soraghan reports for EnergyWire September 5, 2017.