During confirmation hearings, Pruitt verified donations to his campaigns from several energy companies and groups that support fossil fuel energy production.

He also acknowledged that a letter he sent opposing EPA efforts to limit the wasteful leaking of $300 million annually in publicly owned methane gas from drilling sites was mostly written by natural gas lobbyists.

Upon hearing all this, Democrats on the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee walked out pending receipt of information on potential conflicts of interest that might be revealed in 52 outstanding Open Records Act requests to Pruitt’s office. One January 2015, Center for Media and Democracy request seeks over 3,000 emails between the nominee or his staff and Koch Industries and others regulated by EPA.

Republicans were keen to get Hillary Clinton’s emails. Pruitt’s, not so much. Without waiting for the additional facts, Senate Republicans suspended the rule that at least one Democrat had to be present for a committee vote and sent Pruitt’s nomination to the full Senate.

It did not matter – or maybe it did – that budget documents confirm the funding for "environmental law" in the Oklahoma attorney general's office fell from $463,000 in 2010 – before Pruitt arrived – to zero in 2014.