--- title: EPA Chief Scott Pruitt Uses Secret Email Accounts: Senators description: Two Democratic senators said EPA's Scott Pruitt uses three different "secret" epa.gov email accounts in addition to his official address canonical: https://time.com/5238440/scott-pruitt-secret-email-addresses/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-04-12T19:37:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-12T09:06:02.141Z article:section: Politics og:title: EPA Chief Scott Pruitt Has Been Using Three 'Secret' Email Addresses, Senators Say og:description: EPA officials rejected any allegations of wrongdoing og:url: https://time.com/5238440/scott-pruitt-secret-email-addresses/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb460de2d5b088494/6988f73eab6d7701d06b13dd/epa-scott-pruitt-superfund-site-cleanup.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: EPA Chief Scott Pruitt Testifies At House Hearing On Mission Of The EPA og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: EPA Chief Scott Pruitt Has Been Using Three 'Secret' Email Addresses, Senators Say twitter:description: EPA officials rejected any allegations of wrongdoing twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb460de2d5b088494/6988f73eab6d7701d06b13dd/epa-scott-pruitt-superfund-site-cleanup.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # EPA Chief Scott Pruitt Has Been Using Three 'Secret' Email Addresses, Senators Say > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=c860f3ed-21f4-438c-8681-e7af9cb7a966&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Scott Pruitt's EPA [Watch (HLS stream): Scott Pruitt's EPA](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/kwozIrQS.m3u8) (3:14)  _Published 2017-10-26. TIME's Justin Worland sits down with Scott Pruitt of the EPA_ by [Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Bloomberg Contributor Apr 12, 2018 7:37 PM UTC TIME's Justin Worland sits down with Scott Pruitt of the EPA by [Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Bloomberg Contributor Apr 12, 2018 7:37 PM UTC Scott Pruitt, meet Richard Windsor. Two Democratic senators said EPA Administrator Pruitt has been using three different “secret” epa.gov email accounts in addition to his official address and have asked the agency’s inspector general to look into the matter. The allegation evokes memories of former EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson’s use of a second email address to correspond with people outside the agency. Jackson, who served under former President Barack Obama, used the alias “Richard Windsor” — apparently a name borrowed from a family dog. Jackson’s email habits drew fiery condemnation on Capitol Hill, with House Republicans grilling her about the alias in a 2013 Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing nearly a year after she’d left the EPA and entered private business working for Apple Inc. Republicans accused Jackson of using the account to bypass Freedom of Information Act requirements and shield her emails from the public. It turns out Donald Trump’s EPA administrator may be up to the same thing, according to an April 10 letter from senators Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Tom Carper of Delaware, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. “With the use of multiple secret email accounts or addresses, we are concerned that the Office of the Administrator may be withholding information from the public in violation of valid FOIA requests,” the lawmakers wrote to EPA Inspector General Arthur Elkins Jr. “Our offices have received information indicating that the Administrator uses three different secret epa.gov email addresses in addition to his official email address: Pruitt.Scott@epa.gov.” EPA officials rejected any allegations of wrongdoing. “When EPA receives a FOIA request concerning the administrator’s emails, all accounts associated are searched before we respond to that request,” Steve Fine, the agency’s acting chief information officer, said in a statement. The agency said it has three email accounts attributed to Pruitt: one for use by staff for scheduling, another for public correspondence and a third for Pruitt. A fourth email account was created but never used beyond three test emails, according to the EPA. The multiple email accounts add to the rapidly accumulating troubles for Pruitt, who is already under fire for renting a bedroom in a Capitol Hill condominium from a lobbyist, using an obscure law to grant large raises to two close advisers over White House objections and a pattern of retaliating against employees who didn’t go along with the moves. ## Transcript [00:00] My personal opinion is immaterial. Really? [00:04] To the job of- You are gonna be the head of the [00:08] agency to protect the environment and your personal [00:11] feelings about whether climate change is caused by [00:14] human activity and carbon emissions is immaterial? [00:16] [ APPLAUSE ] [00:19] [ MUSIC ] [00:23] Science tells us that the climate is changing. And that [00:25] human activity in some manner impacts that change. [00:28] The ability to measure, with precision to degree and [00:30] the extent of that impact, and what to do about it, are [00:33] subject to continuing debate and dialogue, and well it [00:35] should be. Part of what I did initially, coming into this [00:38] position Was advanced [ UNKNOWN ] the basics [00:41] agenda. Getting back to the core basic missions of the [00:44] agency to really focus on a very constructive, tangible [00:47] outcomes with respect to how we're improving the [00:49] environment. You know the EPA should pass rules [00:53] that are within the framework the Congress has [00:55] established. That sounds pretty novel, but that's [00:58] exactly what should occur. We shouldn't re- imagine [01:00] our authority. To pick winners and losers. Our job is to [01:04] enforce the law and so when a statue is passed by [01:07] Congress, whether it's a clean air act or [ UNKNOWN ] [01:10] or clean water act, our job is to administer that statue [01:13] pursuant to the responsibilities and obligations and [01:16] authority that Congress has given us. What's happened [01:18] the last several years, Is this agency among others? but [01:21] this agency particularly has taken a statute and really [01:25] stretched them so far. That the courts are that step in [01:27] and say you don't have authority or didn't have [01:28] authority to do that. [ MUSIC ] [01:33] [ MUSIC ] [01:36] I think what the American people deserve is a open, [01:40] honest, transparent discussion about what do we know [01:42] or what don't we know with respect to CO2. You're [01:44] welcome to the EPA, perhaps some of you this is your [01:48] first visit to the EPA, its good to see co- monitors here [01:50] at the EPA. The President, by his signature today, is [01:54] rejecting the narrative that this country cannot be both [01:58] pro- energy and pro- environment. So when [02:00] environmental groups say you spend most of your time [02:03] meeting with quote unquote polluters. Your [02:07] response it seems might be something- I don't spend [02:08] any time with polluters. Right. I prosecute polluters. [02:12] Right. What I'm spending time with are stakeholders [02:15] that care about outcomes. When you ask about the [02:18] groups we've met with, those farmers and ranchers in [02:20] Iowa or North Dakota or other parts, are they less of a [02:23] conservation and environmentalist because they're not [02:25] a part of some association? I mean they're our first [02:29] environmentalist. Their greatest asset is their land. I [02:32] think it's very important to help real orient thinking. To [02:35] help us as a country understand that environmental [02:39] stewardship should be our objective, should be our [02:42] goal. Environmental protection is not to put up a fence, [02:46] to say that we can feed the world or not, whether we [02:48] can power the world or not. It's to use the natural [02:50] resources that we've been blessed with as a country to [02:52] help feed the world, power the world, but also do it in [02:55] a way that is environmentally conscious and sensitive to [02:58] future generations. So that's kind of a re- orientation of [03:02] thinking, an attitude if you will along with specific focal [03:05] points of measurements in each of these areas of air, [03:09] land and water. 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