Panel grills Trump’s EPA pick
Wheeler vows to continue rollback of environmental rules
WASHINGTON — Andrew Wheeler, a former fossil-fuel industry lobbyist whom President Donald Trump nominated earlier this month to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, told a Senate panel Wednesday that he would continue the administration’s reversal of environmental rules.
“Through our deregulatory actions, the Trump administration has proven that burdensome federal regulations are not necessary to drive environmental progress,” Wheeler told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee at his confirmation hearing. “Certainty, and the innovation that thrives in a climate of certainty, are key to progress.”
Wheeler, who was confirmed as the agency’s top deputy last year, has served as the EPA’s acting administrator since July. An agency veteran who worked in the Senate before becoming a lobbyist, Wheeler is more low-key than predecessor Scott Pruitt, who resigned in July after federal ethics inquiries.
But Wheeler has drawn criticism because of the policies he’s continued to advance at the helm of the EPA. Protesters began chanting as soon as he began speaking, only to be removed from the room by police. One man shouted, “Shut down Wheeler, not the EPA!” Outside, a larger group of activists continued the same chant as Wheeler resumed his remarks.
Wheeler has made clear that he would pursue many of the regulatory rollbacks Pruitt put in motion and carry out Trump’s promises of a more efficient, less powerful EPA. In his prepared testimony, Wheeler highlighted nearly three dozen significant rules that the EPA had rolled back during the past two years.
Democrats have little hope of blocking Wheeler’s confirmation. But they used the hearing to lambaste him and the administration’s environmental record. Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, the top Democrat on the panel, questioned why the EPA has worked to reverse federal rules that have broad industry support, such as limits on mercury pollution from power plants and stricter fuel-efficiency standards for cars and light trucks.
“Mr. Wheeler is certainly not the ethically bereft embarrassment that Scott Pruitt proved to be and, to be fair, he has engaged more frequently and substantively than Scott Pruitt both with Congress and EPA career staff. I knew that Mr. Wheeler and I would not always agree,” Carper said. “But I hoped he would moderate some of Scott Pruitt’s most environmentally destructive policies, specifically where industry and the environmental community are in agreement. Regrettably, my hopes have not be realized. In fact, upon examination, Mr. Wheeler’s environmental policies appear to be just as extreme as his predecessor’s.”
Wheeler’s confirmation hearing comes during a partial government shutdown that has limited the EPA’s ability to conduct its most basic functions, including industrial inspections and monitoring for pollution nationwide. Wheeler testified that about 800 of the EPA’s roughly 14,000 employees have been deemed essential to continue working during the shutdown. He said many key policies will be delayed as a result of the budget impasse.
Carper questioned why the Senate was taking up Wheeler’s nomination, given the shutdown. “I do not believe that giving the acting administrator a speedy promotion is more urgent and more important than protecting the public from contamination to our air and water and lands,” he said.
But Republicans countered that Wheeler’s extensive experience made him well qualified to steer the EPA and that he should be confirmed as soon as possible. Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., who served as Wheeler’s boss in the Senate, introduced him to the committee and blamed Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., for the budget impasse.
“I really do think the midst of the Schumer shutdown is a good time to confirm some of these nominees,” Inhofe said.
The panel’s chairman, Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said the nominee has demonstrated his mastery of policy arcana over the past six months.
“Under acting administrator Wheeler’s leadership, the agency has taken a number of significant actions to protect our nation’s environment while also supporting economic growth,” he said.
For the most part, Republicans asked questions about pending policies that affected groups such as refiners and farmers. Barrasso, for example, asked whether the partial government shutdown was affecting the speed at which refiners could receive federal permits.
Democrats, meanwhile, sought to pin down Wheeler on questions including his views on climate change and his past lobbying work.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., pressed Wheeler repeatedly on whether he agreed with Trump’s comment that climate change amounted to a Chinese “hoax.” After being pressed, the acting administrator replied, “I have not used the ‘hoax’ word myself.”
Sanders then asked Wheeler whether he accepts the consensus of most scientists that climate change is one of the most serious problems facing the nation.
“I would not call it the greatest crisis, no sir,” he replied. “I would call it a huge issue that needs to be addressed globally.”