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Reuters
WASHINGTON
Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday slammed US President Donald Trump’s new pick to run the Environmental Protection Agency as a pro-business extremist, but harbored little hope of blocking his confirmation in the Republican-controlled Senate.
Trump nominated EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler to run the agency permanently last week.
If confirmed, Wheeler would continue to push the Trump administration’s deregulatory and pro-fossil fuels agenda but without the constant criticism over alleged mismanagement that plagued his predecessor Scott Pruitt.
A Washington insider with years of experience as a top aide to Republican Senator Jim Inhofe, a climate change doubter, Wheeler has been running the EPA since July when Pruitt resigned in a flurry of controversy over his travel expenses and use of resources and staff for personal matters.
His nomination has pleased business groups, but angered environmental advocates, some of whom protested the hearing.
“Mr. Wheeler is certainly not the ethically-bereft embarrassment that Scott Pruitt proved to be,” Senator Tom Carper, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said at the hearing.
Carper, however, added: “Mr Wheeler’s environmental policies appear to be just as extreme as his predecessor’s.”
WASHINGTON
Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday slammed US President Donald Trump’s new pick to run the Environmental Protection Agency as a pro-business extremist, but harbored little hope of blocking his confirmation in the Republican-controlled Senate.
Trump nominated EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler to run the agency permanently last week.
If confirmed, Wheeler would continue to push the Trump administration’s deregulatory and pro-fossil fuels agenda but without the constant criticism over alleged mismanagement that plagued his predecessor Scott Pruitt.
A Washington insider with years of experience as a top aide to Republican Senator Jim Inhofe, a climate change doubter, Wheeler has been running the EPA since July when Pruitt resigned in a flurry of controversy over his travel expenses and use of resources and staff for personal matters.
His nomination has pleased business groups, but angered environmental advocates, some of whom protested the hearing.
“Mr. Wheeler is certainly not the ethically-bereft embarrassment that Scott Pruitt proved to be,” Senator Tom Carper, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said at the hearing.
Carper, however, added: “Mr Wheeler’s environmental policies appear to be just as extreme as his predecessor’s.”
