EPA nominee Wheeler says climate change is not the ‘greatest crisis’

WASHINGTON — Andrew Wheeler, President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency, told a Senate panel Wednesday that he does not believe climate change is the “greatest crisis” and vowed to continue the administration’s agenda of rolling back environmental regulations.

Wheeler, a former coal industry lobbyist who replaced Scott Pruitt to become acting EPA chief last year, faced pointed questions from Democratic senators who sought to cast him as a lackey for the fossil fuel industry and polluters. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, DR.I., who focused on Wheeler’s previous work for a coal firm, described him as someone who has his “thumb, wrist, forearm and elbow on the scales” in favor of the energy industry.

Speaking before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, Wheeler defended his efforts to relax clean air and water rules as necessary to spur economic growth. He highlighted nearly three-dozen different efforts to roll back regulations since Trump became president.

“Through our deregulatory actions, the Trump administration has proven that burdensome federal regulations are not necessary to drive environmental progress,” Wheeler said at his confirmation hearing. “Certainty, and the innovation that thrives in a climate of certainty, are key to progress.”

He also defended his resistance to making climate change a top priority and echoed Trump’s misleading claim that wildfires are mostly a result of poor forest management, rather than worsening drought, increasing development and a warming planet.

Pressed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to explain his position on climate change, Wheeler did not deny the established science that humans are causing global warming. Nor did he repeat Trump’s claim that climate change is a hoax. “I’ve not used the hoax word myself,” he said.

But he showed no sense of urgency to tackle the issue. “I would not call it the greatest crisis, no, sir,” he said to Sanders. “I consider it a huge issue that has to be addressed globally.”

A report published in November, compiled by 13 federal agencies — including the EPA — found that global warming poses a profound threat to human life, the environment and the nation’s economy. It warned that if significant measures are not taken to rein in climate change, the damage from more severe weather could shrink America’s economy to a tenth of its size by 2100.

Asked if he had read the report, Wheeler said he had been briefed once by his staff. He argued that the EPA is already taking steps to reduce carbon emissions, which a recent study found have increased in the last year after years of decline.