Pruitt's Morocco trip was controversial, prompting criticism from Democrats and from the Sierra Club, and prompting an expanded inquiry from the EPA inspector general. In a letter to Pruitt asking him to explain the trip, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) noted that the five-day trip consisted of one full workday, two days with a one-hour meeting for each, and a two-day, non-work layover in Paris over a weekend. Critics also said that Pruitt's trip was improper because the export of liquified natural gas (LNG), a fossil fuel, falls outside the EPA's mission of ensuring clean air and water, and because the Energy Department and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, not the EPA, oversee the export of LNG. At the time of the trip, Pruitt's landlord's lobbying firm represented the only U.S. domestic exporter of LNG.