EPA reportedly approved a company’s project while Pruitt stayed in one of its lobbyists’ condos

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved a project for the Canadian energy company Enbridge at the same time that EPA chief Scott Pruitt was renting a condominium from the wife of one of the company’s lobbyists for $50 a night, The New York Times reported on Monday.

In recent days, Pruitt was found to have rented a condo in Washington, D.C., from the wife of the head of the lobbying firm Williams & Jensen for $50 a night.

The EPA and Enbridge have both said there was no connection between the project’s approval and Pruitt’s condo rental.

{mosads}While the rental might not directly violate ethics rules, it puts Pruitt — and now Enbridge — in a compromising light.

“Any attempt to draw that link is patently false,” Liz Bowman, a spokeswoman for Pruitt, said in a written statement to the Times.

The project — which was approved last March in the form of a letter from the EPA stating that it had no serious environmental objections — would expand the Alberta Clipper pipeline and let more barrels of oils travel from Canada to the U.S.

The EPA approved the project even though the Obama administration had acted to fine Enbridge $61 million for a crude oil spill in a number of waterways.

Williams & Jensen has said it was not involved with Pruitt or the EPA — neither before nor after Pruitt lived in the condo — as the expansion project was being considered, the Times reported.

It added that it has not worked for Enbridge on similar regulatory issues in the past year.

Ethics experts say even if no quid pro quo was requested or offered, the timing of the deal can create an appearance of conflict of interest.

“Entering into this arrangement causes a reasonable person to question the integrity of the EPA decision,” Don Fox, a former general counsel of the Office of Government Ethics, told the Times.