Pruitt monitored EPA site changes

Agency chief personally ordered data on climate change removed

WASHINGTON – Newly released emails show Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt personally monitored efforts last year to excise much of the information about climate change from the agency’s website, especially President Barack Obama’s signature effort to reduce planet-warming carbon emissions from coalfired power plants.

The internal EPA messages from April were released earlier this week after a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the advocacy group Environmental Defense Fund. They show then newly arrived political appointees in the agency’s press office directing career staffers to make a list of changes to epa .gov. The emails show Pruitt wanted the updates to appear as soon as possible and that he had wanted specific changes made.

John Konkus, a former Republican campaign operative hired as the EPA’s deputy associate administrator for public affairs, emailed staffers on the evening of Saturday, April 1.

“We need to start building an updated page for the clean power plan ASAP with the goal of having it go live sometime on Monday,” Konkus wrote. “Is there any way we can get a little time put in on this project over the weekend so that we’re off on the right foot on Monday morning?”

Four days before the email, President Donald Trump signed an executive order on energy independence that included a directive to start the process of rescinding the Clean Power Plan and other environmental regulations that “potentially burden” the domestic production of fossil fuels.

Konkus’ message triggered a flurry of emails over the following days about extensive changes to the agency’s webpages, including some edits ordered directly by Pruitt.

Among the changes were stripping away data about climate change and modifying search results for “Clean Power Plan” to feature a page touting Trump’s executive order.