COUNTERINTUITIVE

Scott Pruitt Asked Oil, Gas Trade Group for Hiring Recommendations

Oil company ConocoPhillips ended up sending the agency two resumes for consideration.

Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt asked executives of a major oil and gas trade group to suggest possible candidates to fill regional director positions at the agency, according to internal EPA emails obtained by the Sierra Club. BuzzFeed News reports that Pruitt “made a plea for candidates” to American Petroleum Institute executives, and oil company ConocoPhillips then sent two resumes to the agency. One was for a ConocoPhillips employee in Alaska, and the other was for a friend of the company’s vice president for State and Federal Government Affairs. Neither candidate ended up getting the job, but former EPA head Christine Todd Whitman told BuzzFeed News that it was “highly unusual to go to a specific industry to try to recruit.”