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Scott Pruitt, who resigned Thursday as a director of the Environmental Protection Agency, was a Donald Trump favorite. But Pruitt was plagued by a scandal and failed in implementing the president's program to rule out regulation on air and water sanitation. While Pruitt was a pet peeve for environmentalists, for his zeal to target the rules of the Obama era and his rejection of climate science, his attempts at deregulation were regularly described as hasty and clumsy. they floundered in the courts.
Andrew Wheeler, Pruitt's replacement at least in the meantime, could be a more effective weapon for Trump. A consummate Washington insider and a former coal lobbyist, he will probably approach his work with the same ideology as Pruitt but without flamboyance and ethical scandals – a much more dangerous prospect for those who are appalled by the Trump's attitude toward the environment
"The Pruitt agenda was really Trump's agenda and I think Andrew is just as engaged as Pro Pruitt, "said Myron Ebell, who led the EPA transition team for Trump and who has known Wheeler for two decades.
"He knows much more about the agency's management and the technical side of the environmental laws that the EPA is responsible for enforcing than Pruitt. Undoing [Barack] The Regulatory Assault D & # 39; Obama at the EPA is a key element of the president's economic stimulus package, and Wheeler will therefore be a top man for Trump just like Pruitt. "
For opponents to the president, the prospect is daunting a. "Scott Pruitt was the most scandalized cabinet member in a corrupt administration," said Christy Goldfuss, Obama's environmental advisor, who is currently at the Center for American Progress. "There is no reason to believe that Wheeler will solve the problems left behind and will put the health of the children ahead of his friends in the industry."
Confirmed by the Senate as deputy administrator of the industry. EPA in April, Wheeler knows the machinations of the federal government. government. He spent four years at the EPA Pollution Prevention Bureau at the Bush and Clinton Administrations before working for Senator James Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma whose categorical rejection of the science of Climate change implied a snowball in the Senate. Wheeler then became a lobbyist at Faegre Baker Daniels, where he represented Murray Energy, a major coal company, until August 2017. The company submitted to Trump a wish list for reducing environmental impacts ; Wheeler helped in his attempts to fight the limits on toxic emissions such as mercury.
While he was working for Marco Rubio's presidential campaign in February 2016, Wheeler wrote a Facebook post now deleted in which he called Trump a PR person and a bully, "which he said should" only disqualify him from the White House "
That did not stop his ascent into the Trump administration. Shortly after his appointment in October, Wheeler emailed Ryan Jackson, head of Pruitt's staff, with a link to an article from the satirical website of the Onion titled: "The EPA promotes the black impulse mud to the deputy director."
"Welcome, Mud Flushes black, "replied Jackson, in e-mails published under freedom of information laws." I guess I'll have to bring in the cleaning crews more often. "
Wheeler insisted on did not want Pruitt's work. "I could have put my screed in the ring for the administrator, "he said in June. "That did not interest me, that still does not interest me."
Now that he's in the role that he said he does not covet, he'll be charged with Complete the work of dismantling environmental and climate regulations. Pruitt has enthusiastically delivered but has been pursued by states such as New York and California, as well as by environmental groups.
Pruitt's attempt to put an end to the restrictions on emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, Trump's EPA also had trouble finding solid reasons why the rules of Energy efficiency of cars should be watered down, or what will replace clean standards. Wheeler, with his knowledge of the rule-making process, will help manage these rollovers while avoiding the headlines of more than 1,500 fountain pens, Trump Hotel mattresses or Chick. -Fil-A franchises.
"He is discreet and likes to keep a low profile," said Ebell. "He may have to do more public speaking than he wants."
A senior EPA official who did not wish to be named said, "I think it will be night and day with Wheeler, or at least at night and in the late afternoon He's going to talk to us … he's a human being, not a politician. "
Wheeler is likely to maintain Pruitt's close ties with the industry, though. Under Trump, the fossil fuel industry has exerted unusual influence over the agency that is supposed to regulate it and the troubled staff worries that its public health mission is at risk of being buried . "The removal of Pruitt is only the first step toward restoring a strong EPA that will resume its mission of protecting public health and our environment," said Carol Browner, chief of the US Department of Transportation. EPA in the administration of Bill Clinton. "Congress needs to make sure that the next EPA administrator is not another industry insider."
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