Before you start rejoicing that the most ethically and environmentally shady Administrator in the history of the EPA, Scott Pruitt, is facing the final curtain, keep in mind who is standing in the wings. Trump will replace him with the EPA #2, Andrew Wheeler - a long-time coal lobbyist who has spent his entire career working to kneecap the agency he will now by running.
This afternoon, President Trump announced, as he usually does via Tweet, the resignation of the dirty (as in scandal and as in coal) Pruitt:
"I have accepted the resignation of Scott Pruitt as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Within the Agency Scott has done an outstanding job, and I will always be thankful to him for this. The Senate confirmed Deputy at EPA, Andrew Wheeler, will...
...on Monday assume duties as the acting Administrator of the EPA. I have no doubt that Andy will continue on with our great and lasting EPA agenda. We have made tremendous progress and the future of the EPA is very bright!"
Who is Andrew Wheeler? First and foremost, he's the Washington greaser for coal company Murray Energy.
As the Sierra Club's Mary Ann Hitt wrote back in April,
Under Wheeler, however, the great fear is that we are going to get more of the same — or even worse. Wheeler, in his role as a tool for fossil fuel companies, has lobbied against national efforts to reduce carbon pollution and other toxic emissions. In other words, he has advocated against the very regulations that the EPA is mandated to uphold – by Congress – to protect Americans from pollution and natural disasters, many of which are now exacerbated by climate change. In his most recent position as a lobbyist at the law firm Faegre Baker Daniels, Wheeler worked on behalf of Murray Energy, a company which has actively used the Trump Administration to enact policies that prop up the polluting coal industry.
Wheeler wasn't just some guy on the sidelines - he's been at ground zero for some of the most eggregious pro-pollution actions of the Trump administration's first year. WAPO reports:
Wheeler arranged and attended a March 28, 2017, meeting between chief executive Robert E. Murray and Energy Secretary Rick Perry. Murray, who had contributed heavily to the Trump campaign, laid out a four-page plan for rolling back regulations and protecting coal plants in danger of closing because of competition from other fuel supplies.
You remember Perry's plan to subsidize coal plants to keep them from shuttering - out of "national security" concerns? Yep, that's what Murray wants (even if everyone else in the energy biz says the plan is literally insane), and it looks like their man at the top will hand it to them.
Or how about the decision to truncate our National Monuments (to benefit mining interests)? Guess who:
Wheeler also represented Energy Fuels Resources, a uranium mining firm that could benefit from Trump’s December announcement to halve the size of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. He was lobbying the administration about the issue nearly nine months before the announcement.
Also, he lobbied for LNG exports, loosening restrictions on coal plant pollution, and more ozone.
In his free time, Wheeler is vice president of the Washington Coal Club.
And before he worked as a lobbyist, he worked for... snowballing Senator James Inhofe.
On Capitol Hill, Wheeler not only worked for Inhofe but as staff director and chief counsel to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, where he worked to defeat climate-related legislation that came before lawmakers.
Environmental groups were ecstatic to see Pruitt go... but...
“Andrew Wheeler is equally unqualified to serve as the nation’s chief environmental steward,” Ana Unruh Cohen, managing director for government affairs at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a statement. “This veteran coal lobbyist has shown only disdain for the EPA’s vital mission to protect Americans’ health and our environment.”
"Under the current administration, the EPA has already failed to take reasonable steps to protect American citizens from polluted air, toxic water, and black lung disease," say's Sierra Club's Hitt. "...the EPA is now “Every Polluters Ally” dedicated only to protecting polluter profits, rather than citizens."
(Originally appeared at RedGREENandBlue, the website where progressive and conservative voices come together to stand up for the environment.)