Scandal-Plagued Scott Pruitt Resigns from EPA, Coal Lobbyist Andrew Wheeler Now Interim EPA Chief

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Scott Pruitt, whose tenure at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was tarred by corruption scandals and hostility to environmental regulation, offered his resignation today, effective Julyย 6.

The EPAโ€™s new interim administrator, Andrew Wheeler, is a former coal lobbyist, profiled byย DeSmog.

DeSmog’s prior profile of Wheelerย reports:

Wheeler is theย latest former stafferย ofย climate change denier James Inhofe to join theย EPA.ย Prior to joiningย FaegreBD Consulting, Wheeler worked asย majority staff director, minority staff director and chief counsel at theย Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works for Inhofe. He worked in a similar vein atย the Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate Change, Wetlands and Nuclear Safetyย under the chairmanship ofย Inhofeย and also that of George Voinovich. Before that, heย workedย as Inhofe’s chief counsel from 1995 toย 1997.

Under Presidents Georgeย H.W.ย Bush and Bill Clinton, Wheelerย spent four years as a staffer at theย EPA‘s Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxicsย before moving on to his position at theย Senate Environment and Public Worksย Committee.

Until mid-2017, Wheelerย lobbied on behalf ofย Murray Energy, the nation’s largest privately owned coal company. Run by vocal climate change denierย Robert Murray, the energy company hasย fought against industry regulation and climate change mitigation efforts.ย According toย EcoWatch, Wheeler brought in at least $3 million in income for his firm from Murrayย Energy.

Murray Energy, while Wheeler’s client,ย produced an โ€œAction Planโ€ย for the Trump Administration including complete elimination of the Clean Power Plan, overturning the endangerment finding for greenhouse gases, and eliminating tax credits for wind and solar energy. In his confirmation hearing, Wheeler admitted to having seen theย plan.

According to hisย profile atย Faegre Baker Daniels Consulting, Wheeler โ€œworked on every major piece of environmental and energy-related legislation over the last decade, including greenhouse gas emissions legislation, the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, the Clear Skies Act and the Clean Air Interstate Rule.โ€ The consulting firm also notes that Wheeler has worked onย 1998 and 2005 Highway Bill reauthorizations,ย the Diesel Emissions Reductionย SEPย Bill, andย Renewable Fuel Standards.ย His regulatory work includes โ€œall major fuel related issues including Refineryย MACT, Gasoline sulfur, and theย NSPSย program.โ€

โ€œAndrew Wheelerโ€™s nomination is very much in keeping with the Trump administrationโ€™s agenda of fossil fuel exploitation and climate inaction,โ€ Michael Mann, a climatologist at Penn State Universityย told HuffPost.

Pruitt Out, Wheelerย In

Reaction from environmental organizations wasย swift.

โ€œWe say to Scott Pruitt: Good riddance,โ€ Food and Water Watch said in a statement moments after the resignation was made public. โ€œWe say to Donald Trump: We will continue to oppose your cabinetโ€™s agenda to serve billionaires and corporate interests, and we will continue to fight your administrationโ€™s attack on our environmental protections, whoever the next EPA administrator mayย be.โ€

Wheeler’s record as a coal lobbyist drew immediate scrutiny โ€” as did concerns about his record onย ethics.

Wheeler, who until today served as deputy administrator under Pruitt, faces an ongoing ethics complaint from Public Citizen, a watchdog organization, according to CBS News. Wheelerโ€™s tenure as a coal industry lobbyist only ended in May of 2017 โ€” too recent to meet the requirement of Trumpโ€™s executive order number 13770, which requires waivers for government officials overseeing industries they lobbied for in the prior two years. Wheeler never obtained that required waiver, the ethics complaintย alleges.

He’s also under fire for hosting fundraisers for Republican politicians who were then considering his nomination as deputy administrator, which was first reported by The Intercept earlier thisย year.

He’s the Vice President of the Washington Coal Club, supported Trump’s withdrawal of the U.S. from the Paris Accord, fought climate-related bills in D.C. and helped push for exemptions from environmental laws and liability rules for chemical companies after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. During an earlier stint at the EPA in the 1990s, he helped to draft rules under the Toxic Substances Control Act related to how much information chemical companies needed to provide to regulators about newย chemicals.

โ€œLike Pruitt, this veteran coal lobby lobbyist has shown only disdain for the EPAโ€™s vital mission to protect Americansโ€™ health and our environment,โ€ Ana Unruh Cohen, managing director for government affairs at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an advocacy group, told The New Yorkย Times.

EPA‘s next administrator must be nominated by the president and approved by the Senate โ€” shaping up a potentially significant decision that could be made by the Republican-controlled Senate prior to mid-term elections. It comes as Republicans also seek to appoint a replacement for Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, whose resignation was announced on June 27, before those midterm elections results areย in.

During his tenure, Pruitt was at the center of an extraordinarily long list of financial and ethics scandals. He may be remembered in the public imagination more for his obsession with his personal security โ€” the sound-proof booth, the bullet-proof SUV, the $3 million 24/7 security detail โ€” and his use of his position to enrich himself personally โ€” the $50/night Capitol Hill rental, the first-class flights, the Chick-fil-A bid on his wife’s behalf โ€” than for environmental rollbacks he oversaw, which wereย significant.

Pruitt revoked regulations designed to improve the gas mileage of American auto fleets, roiling the vehicle manufacturing industry and dealing a signficant blow to efforts to curb climate-changing pollution from driving. He delayed controls for methane leaks from the oil and gas industry, a move courts later found was in violation of the law. His EPA is currently seeking to replace the Clean Power Plan with pollution rules for coal-burning power plants that are far moreย lax.

Pruitt’s resignation letter, which Fox News published online, wasย unrepentant.

โ€œTruly, your confidence in me has blessed me personally,โ€ Pruitt’s letter begins, โ€œand enabled me to advance your agenda beyond what anyone anticipated at the beginning of yourย Administration.โ€

โ€œWith Pruitt out and Andrew Wheeler at the helm, the EPA Adminstrator will no longer be #BigOil’s right hand man,โ€ wrote Democratic Senator Ed Markey on Twitter, โ€œit’ll be King Coal’s bestย lobbyist.โ€

The ‘Inhofeย Mafia’

Pruitt โ€” who resigned while under multiple investigations by the EPA‘s inspector general (the agency’s internal watchdog), the Government Accountability Office, the White House Office of Management and Budget, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and the U.S. Office of Special Counsel โ€” sought to characterize his problems as โ€œunrelenting attacks on me personally,โ€ which he added wereย โ€œunprecedented.โ€

His letter did not discuss the specific issues that are at the center of those investigations, which include an unprecedented amount of first-class travel to destinations like his home state Oklahoma or his lobbyist-arranged trip to Morocco to promote exports of liquefied natural gas from the U.S., multiple possible violations of federal lobbying rules, and claims of retaliation against his ownย staff.

Like Pruitt, Wheeler is closely tied to Senator James Inhofe. Senator Inhofe, a long-time climate science denier remembered for bringing a snowball into a Congressional debate to illustrate his doubts that the climate was warming, expressed support for Pruitt just two weeks ago, despite the long list of scandals that was enveloping the then-EPAย chief.

โ€œAfter the face-to-face with the administrator, Iโ€™m a little embarrassed that I was starting to doubt [Priutt] in some areas where he shouldnโ€™t have been doubted,โ€ Inhofe said during a June 20ย newsย conference.

Wheeler is a former Inhofe staffer and known in D.C. as a member of the โ€œInhofe mafia,โ€ or influential energy industry lobbyists โ€” and ex-lobbyists, like Wheeler, who now work in the Trump administration โ€” according to The New York Times.

โ€œIf the concern, though, is policy and public health protection and the way EPA functions, then I think Andy Wheeler can be counted on, unfortunately, to carry out exactly the same policies and reflect exactly the same ideology as Pruitt,โ€ Joseph Goffman, executive director of the environmental law program at Harvard Law School, told The Chicago Tribune. โ€œHe is a member of the very same coalition Pruitt has beenย representing.โ€

The New York Times Editorial Board offered a sobering warning about thatย prospect.

โ€œIn the end, Mr. Pruitt was driven from office for having abused his position so outrageously,โ€ the Times’ editorial board wrote.

โ€œBut if Mr. Trump continues down the same policy paths, as seems likely, Mr. Pruittโ€™s more lasting legacy, along with the presidentโ€™s, will be an overheated planet and shortened lifeย spans.โ€

Updates toย follow.

Main image: Andrew Wheeler being sworn in by then-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt.ย Credit: U.S. EPA, publicย domain

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Sharon Kelly is an attorney and investigative reporter based in Pennsylvania. She was previously a senior correspondent at The Capitol Forum and, prior to that, she reported for The New York Times, The Guardian, The Nation, Earth Island Journal, and a variety of other print and online publications.

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