Lobbyist with links to Pruitt had clients facing EPA
WASHINGTON — The energy lobbyist whose wife leased a bedroom to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt last year had a roster of clients with business before the EPA, handing fodder to critics who are demanding that Pruitt be fired.
J. Steven Hart, chairman of Williams & Jensen, has said he didn’t personally lobby the EPA in 2017 or this year. But plenty of his corporate clients had pending matters with the agency, the lead federal regulator governing air and water pollution nationwide, according to a Bloomberg News review of lobbying disclosures.
“J. Steven Hart is a very active lobbyist who has had considerable contact with the EPA and representing numerous clients before the EPA,” said Craig Holman of the watchdog group Public Citizen.
President Trump says he still has confidence in the embattled EPA chief who is strongly backed by business leaders and prominent conservatives who have mounted a campaign of support.
“He’s been very courageous. Hasn’t been easy,” Trump said Thursday on Air Force One. “At EPA he’s done a fantastic job.”
Nevertheless, Pruitt’s standing at the White House is not secure. Top administration officials are deeply skeptical of Pruitt’s explanation over how two close aides secured raises worth tens of thousands of dollars over the White House’s objection, according to people familiar with the matter. And they are frustrated by the barrage of damaging headlines about Pruitt, from the condo rental to a New York Times report Thursday that aides who questioned him were shifted to other jobs.
Questions about Pruitt’s lease stem from a bedroom he rented in a Capitol Hill condo from health care lobbyist Vicki Hart under terms that allowed him to pay $50 a day — but only for the days it was occupied.
J. Steven Hart’s clients have included the liquefied natural gas exporter Cheniere Energy, pipeline company Enbridge Inc., meat processor Smithfield Foods and other companies that have interactions with the EPA, according to disclosures filed with Congress.
Hart also was part of a four lobbyist team that lobbied the EPA, the House and the Senate on behalf of glass manufacturer Owens-Illinois Inc, according to disclosures filed with Congress. In the disclosures, which were first reported by the Daily Beast, the team addressed environmental legislation and regulations regarding greenhouse gas emissions and glass recycling. The disclosures did not indicate which of the four lobbyists contacted the EPA.