Remember when Trump finally fired Scott Pruitt as EPA head? Did you think he’d find someone less antagonistic towards the environment to replace him? Of course you didn’t. And he didn’t. He named a former coal lobbyist, Andrew Wheeler, as the acting chief and on Friday he announced he’ll submit him to the Senate as the EPA head. Yesterday Brady Dennis and Juliet Eilperin, writing for the Washington Post, broke the not unexpected news: Trump plans to nominate Andrew Wheeler, former coal lobbyist, as EPA chief. The move, of course “would ensure a continued deregulatory push at the agency.” If anything, Wheeler will continue to be far worse than Pruitt… and Pruitt was a complete catastrophe.
During his brief tenure as the EPA’s acting chief, Wheeler has proved far different from the man he replaced. Where Pruitt was a politician who appeared to enjoy the limelight and trappings of Cabinet life, Wheeler has long worked behind the scenes on energy and environmental policy and generally avoids public attention. Along with Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie, Wheeler represents the sort of technocrat who has risen through the ranks after an initial Trump Cabinet pick stumbled.But Wheeler and his predecessor have this in common-- a zeal to deregulate. Wheeler made clear from the start that he intends to carry out many of the regulatory rollbacks set in motion under Pruitt, and to pursue new ones.“I will try to work to implement the president’s agenda,” Wheeler told the Washington Post shortly after he took over the reins at the EPA this summer. “I don’t think the overall agenda is going to change that much, because we’re implementing what the president has laid out for the agency.”In the months since, Wheeler has continued to advance Trump’s agenda, proposing rules to loosen carbon limits on power plants and relax fuel-efficiency standards for cars and light trucks. Those proposals, along with moves to change the way the agency calculates the health benefits of new air-pollution standards, have sparked sharp criticism from environmental and public health groups....Just this week, Wheeler announced a plan to impose stricter limits on nitrogen-oxide emissions from heavy-duty trucks, winning praise from the trucking industry and the American Lung Association.Wheeler, like his predecessor, undoubtedly will have the support of industry....Wheeler stands a strong chance of winning Senate confirmation, though his nomination is still likely to spur debate. He won approval for his current job in April on a 53-to-45 vote, with three Democrats supporting his nomination. At the time, several Democratic senators questioned his past work for Murray Energy, one of the nation’s biggest coal companies, as well as mining companies and other energy interests.
Two of the three ultra-conservative Democrats who voted for Wheeler’s confirmation last April were defeated in their reelection bids-- Joe Donnelly (IN) and Heidi Heitkamp (ND). It never pays for Democrats to suck up to Trump because Republicans aren’t going to vote for them anyway and by deflating base enthusiasm they wind up losing anyway.Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse: “I hoped Scott Pruitt’s policy dirty work would dry up after he left the EPA in disgrace, but proposals like the forthcoming rule to weaken or eliminate protections against mercury emissions make it clear Andrew Wheeler plans to continue... with rollbacks of vital environmental protections."