Before he was tapped to lead the EPA under President Donald Trump, Pruitt served as the attorney general in the oil-rich of Oklahoma.

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee member Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., points to a chart as he questions Environmental Protection Agency Administrator-designate, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2017, during Pruitt's confirmation hearing before the committee. (AP/J. Scott Applewhite)

By: John Russell/Mint Press News Plagued by questions about its leader's documented ties to the energy industry, the Environmental Protection Agency faces a federal complaint charging it with having missed repeated deadlines to turn over records about Scott Pruitt.

Before he was tapped to lead the EPA under President Donald Trump, Pruitt served as the attorney general in the oil-rich of Oklahoma.

The Natural Resources Defense Council notes in a May 11 complaint that questions about Pruitt's impartiality remain unanswered and that it filed several simple document requests with the EPA to determine whether its new administrator is complying "with ethical rules and whether he is favoring stakeholders that share his ideology concerning regulatory matters."

"We should all expect the EPA administrator to protect public health, and not work to fulfill his pro-polluter agenda from his days in Oklahoma," NRDC attorney Jon Devine said in a statement about the complaint.

Filed with a federal judge in Manhattan, the complaint notes that the deadlines for the EPA to respond have lapsed in four cases where the group filed requests about Pruitt under the Freedom of Information Act.

The first of these requests has been pending since Feb. 22. This request concerns a press release the agency issued a week earlier about Pruitt's Senate confirmation.

On March 9, the council submitted another FOIA request for records concerning Pruitt's involvement, if any, in two pleadings filed by EPA in ongoing litigation involving Oklahoma over the Clean Water Rule.