The EPA's relief and worries after the release of the scandal-ridden leader

WASHINGTON – Taking over from an ambitious predecessor known to have sought out the rich, powerful and conservative, the new Acting Director of the Environmental Protection Agency promised to join the anxious employees and legislators of both political parties. Late Friday afternoon, Scott Pruitt, whose President Donald Trump announced Thursday after months of ethical scandals at Pruitt, or Andrew Wheeler, a Washington veteran and former coal lobbyist, who had announced that Trump was announcing

In an email sent to EPA employees on Thursday night and obtained by the Associated Press, Wheeler stated that he was honored to take the temporary leadership of the agency where he began washing on the quarry in the early 1990s, as an EPA employee dealing with toxic substances and other issues. "I'm looking forward to working hard with you all," Wheeler wrote agency employees.

Pruitt, the Attorney General of Oklahoma at the time of his appointment to the EPA, had embraced the office benefits in Washington. He instituted unusual and costly protection for himself, traveled to Europe and North Africa and asked agency staff to look for a home for his family, a high-value job for his wife. and pleasures like tickets for the best sporting events.

Trump praised Pruitt for his ways of regulating at the EPA. On Thursday, however, Trump said Pruitt himself had concluded that the chief EPA's ethical scandals were too distracting and that he was resigning.

Some EPA staff members feared Friday for their work. under Pruitt said. This included the approximately 20 members of a security service that Pruitt's EPA had created to protect him 24 hours a day.

The guards had been originally trained to investigate the crimes against the environment. Agency security managers should decide what level of protection Wheeler needs.

"There is definitely this fear" of a reshuffle among Pruitt's other political candidates, said Kevin Chmielewski, former deputy chief of staff with Pruitt after questioning the expenses. "These are the follow-up stories, the lives of the people he's touched, going to the agents and all the others."

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Some scientists and other career staff, who learned Thursday the Pruitt's departure by social media, expressed their relief, said Elizabeth Southerland, who resigned last year as the scientific director of the Office of Water.

Wheeler's public statements show that he is skeptical, like Pruitt, about the extent to which coal, oil and gas emissions are driving climate change, what the dominant science says to be an indisputable fact

. ] After leaving his four-year post at the EPA in the 1990s, Wheeler became the Senate's best member for the most ardent advocate of climate change, Republican Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma. Wheeler went on to work as a lobbyist for leading coal companies and other businesses and interests.

Wheeler describes himself as someone who has always tried to find a plot agreement in Washington

. Wheeler told the Washington Examiner earlier this year that he was focusing on repairing relationships with the EPA's career staff bristling with Pruitt's leadership

. ] At the EPA, staff members expect Wheeler to abide by the agenda established by Pruitt and Trump: Reducing environmental regulations that the Trump and Southerland administration, the Former water officer, said: "There is not one person who does not think this will happen," said Southerland about the current staff members of the company. EPA to whom she spoke

. However, "they think that at least the contemptuous behavior will stop," she said. She was referring to allegations that Pruitt had ignored all of his political representatives at the agency and used his office for personal purposes

The EPA press office on Friday sent biographical information on Wheeler, but did not respond to interview requests. .