Plunging oil prices have devastated the state budget in Oklahoma in the last several years, leading to employee layoffs and sharp cuts in services. But the tough times didn't touch Attorney General Scott Pruitt, President-elect Trump nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency.
While preaching small-government conservatism, Pruitt, 48, has managed to increase his office expenses by 40 percent and add nearly 60 employees, turning the agency into a dynamo of legal attacks on the Obama administration.
He expanded by finding ways of tapping into the budgets of other agencies. Pruitt's ingenuity for increasing his power will now be trained on an agency seen as a nemesis for right-wing conservatives.