Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt spent $45,000 to send a five-member advance team to Australia last year to prepare for a meeting that was later scrapped.
Reuters obtained documents on Thursday detailing the Australia team’s mission, which included three members of Pruitt’s security detail and two aides. They were supposed to meet with members of Australia’s Parliament.
All five members of the team flew business class at a rate of $9,000 each, which federal rules allow because of the length of the flight. The cost of flying coach would have cost $1,400 per person.
The purpose of the mission was to set up meetings between Pruitt and Australian officials on environmental policy. Australia is one of the largest coal producers in the Pacific region and principal supplier to China. Many of Pruitt’s visits domestically and overseas have to do with coal and natural gas production, but it is not known if that was the intent of the visit.
Pruitt canceled the visit to the “land down under” after Hurricane Harvey struck the Gulf Coast. The meeting has not been rescheduled.
“This is not news,” EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox told Reuters. He said the team adhered to federal travel policy in making the trip, although the EPA has “been unable to find a time to reschedule this meeting.”
Australia’s parliament must be in session for the meetings to take place, he said. The parliament is out of session for nearly all of April, but both chambers return for budget deliberations in May. Wilcox did not say whether Pruitt is still planning on going.
Pruitt is slated to testify next week before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on the fiscal 2019 budget.
