EPA Chief Lives in Tony D.C. Townhouse Co-Owned by Wife of Powerful Coal, Oil, and Gas Lobbyist

Scott Pruitt, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency lives in an upscale Washington, D.C. townhouse one block away from the Capitol. It is co-owned by Vicki Hart, whose husband is a top energy lobbyist who lobbies the EPA, ABC News reports Thursday in an exclusive. Both Harts are lobbyists – she is a health care lobbyist and they have been described as a “lobbyist power couple.”

“The price tag on Pruitt’s rental arrangement is one key question when determining if it constitutes an improper gift, ethics experts tell ABC News.”

J. Steven Hart is the CEO of Williams and Jensen, “a firm that reported more than $16 million in federal lobbying income in 2017, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.” He is also a top GOP fundraiser, having given six figures to Republican candidates in just the last election cycle.

Williams and Jensen’s website says its “energy and environment practice group offers clients decades of experience on issues that are consistently at the top of the Washington agenda. Our professionals’ political sophistication, legislative and regulatory knowledge, and deep understanding of energy businesses and markets consistently deliver success for our clients.”

Those clients “have included: electric utilities; refiners; energy-intensive manufacturers; a solar power manufacturer; oil, refined products and natural gas pipeline operators; a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal operator; oil and gas producers; coal producers; and land owners,” at least some of which are regulated by Scott Pruitt’s EPA.

One of Hart’s clients at Williams and Jensen is Cheniere Energy, which “owned the only active Liquid Natural Gas export plant in the United States at the time. Liquid natural gas exports was on the agenda for discussion during Pruitt’s December 2017 trip to Morocco, according to an agency press release,” ABC News reports.

“On the trip, Pruitt pitched ‘the potential benefit of liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports on Morocco’s economy,’ the release said.”

Ethics experts are concerned.

“I think it certainly creates a perception problem, especially if Mr. Hart is seeking to influence the agency,” Bryson Morgan, the former investigative counsel at the U.S. House of Representatives Office of Congressional Ethics, told ABC News. “That’s why there is a gift rule.”

Before becoming President Trump’s EPA chief, Pruitt was the Attorney General for Oklahoma. He spent much of his tenure as AG suing the EPA.

Williams and Jensen’s website also notes its “practice encompasses federal policy development, lawmaking, and regulatory implementation. We have successfully represented clients interested in the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Natural Gas Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA), the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the Pipeline Safety Act, and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, Rodenticide Act.”