Dems hit Trump EPA nominee on coal lobbying, rollbacks
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday called climate change “a huge issue” but not the “greatest crisis” and drew fire from Democrats at his confirmation hearing over the regulatory rollbacks he’s made in six months as the agency’s acting administrator.
Republicans on the GOPmajority Senate Environment and Public Works Committee mostly had praise for Andrew Wheeler, who has served as the agency’s acting head since Scott Pruitt’s resignation in July amid ethics scandals.
The committee chairman, Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., called Wheeler “very well-qualified” to take the job.
But Democrats pressed Wheeler about his work as a lobbyist helping an influential coal magnate meet with Trump administration officials before his nomination to the EPA and his moves on deregulation and on what they said was his inattention to the growing dangers of climate change.
“You seem to be consistently doing things that undermine the health and safety of this nation,” Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., told Wheeler.
Markey asked him why he was pulling back on regulations that proponents say protect human health and the environment.
“I believe we are moving forward” on protections, Wheeler said.
Wheeler cited changes he had initiated to roll back future mileage standards for cars and autos and to ease Obama-era clampdowns on dirtier-burning coal-fired power plants.
He said EPA staff had concluded that those rollbacks would ultimately lead to health gains. Environmental groups and formal assessments from the EPA and other agencies have contested that, saying the changes would increase pollution and harm to people and climate.
Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., said the rollbacks in car mileage standards and toxic mercury emissions under Wheeler were examples of unsafe deregulation and went beyond what industries wanted.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., noted Wheeler had failed to mention climate change in his initial remarks to lawmakers.
“Do you agree that climate change is a global crisis?” Sanders asked.
“I would not call it the greatest crisis,” Wheeler said. “I would call it a huge issue that has to be addressed globally.”