"EPA: Pruitt to Clear Obama's FOIAs While Trump Requests Linger"

"U.S. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is pushing to shrink a backlog of Freedom of Information Act requests left by the Obama administration.

EPA said today it was on track to 'significantly reduce' the long list of public records requests received by the agency prior to 2017. While the Obama-era backlog is under scrutiny from top officials, frequent filers of FOIAs are wondering why more attention hasn't been given to requests targeting the Trump administration.

'What people are interested in are the questionable activities of this administration, not the one that has left office,' said John Walke, clean air director of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

'They could clearly prioritize the FOIA requests they have received this year, not ones from the prior year, but that is not in their political interest.'"

Kevin Bogardus reports for Greenwire November 21, 2017.