Lauren Lantry, lauren.lantry@sierraclub.org
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, Scott Pruitt’s former Deputy EPA Administrator and current Acting EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler addressed Washington, DC EPA employees for the first time. Among his first actions was to announce that Henry Darwin would take his old job as acting EPA Deputy Administrator. When hired by Pruitt, Darwin demanded a high-paying job for his wife at the EPA that she received.
As reported by ABC News, “An anti-nepotism statute to a presidential appointment in the executive branch, a public official may not ‘advocate for appointment, employment, promotion, or advancement, in or to a civilian position in the agency in which he is serving or over which he exercises jurisdiction or control any individual who is a relative of the public official.’”
Already, Wheeler is facing controversy for his past as a formaldehyde lobbyist as EPA warnings on the dangers of formaldehyde are blocked. In addition, serious questions are raised by Wheeler’s past as a lobbyist for companies with business before the EPA and for the corporate polluters he is now supposed to hold accountable. The Sierra Club is also joining several allies in sending a letter asking Wheeler’s EPA to withdray its decision to cease enforcing the glider truck requirements.
In response, Sierra Club Resist campaign director Maura Cowley released the following statement:
“The next Administrator of the EPA needs to restore public trust in the agency, let it fulfill its mission, and clean up Scott Pruitt’s mess, but Andrew Wheeler is doing nothing but following in Pruitt’s dirty footsteps. Wheeler is only adding to the pile of ethics questions that already face him by promoting Pruitt’s scandal-marred aides and pushing polluter-friendly policies. No one should forget that Wheeler is a coal lobbyist dogged by ethical issues who is now doing things at the EPA that corporate polluters once paid him to ask Scott Pruitt to do. Wheeler looks a lot like Pruitt 2.0, and no one should have confidence that he will do what is necessary to keep our families safe from the corporate polluters who signed his paychecks just months ago.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3 million members and supporters. In addition to helping people from all backgrounds explore nature and our outdoor heritage, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.