Tomorrow: Wheeler Has Provided Ample Reasons for Senators to Block His Nomination

Tomorrow, the Senate Energy and Public Works Committee will vote on advancing Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler’s nomination to the full Senate. But putting a coal lobbyist like Andrew Wheeler in charge of the EPA is like giving a bank robber the keys to the vault, making Tony Soprano the head of the FBI, hiring Palpatine to run the Galactic Senate, or putting the Hamburglar in charge of McDonalds. The fox in the hen house analogies are endless here, but so is Wheeler’s ability to rollback vital safeguards to our air, water, and climate and put our environment and health at risk should he remain in the top spot at the EPA. Wheeler isn’t just friendly with corporate polluters; he’s been on their team for years.

We know Andrew Wheeler is a dangerous threat to the health of our families and our air and water. He’s proven that in his short time at the EPA and in his long career as a lobbyist for corporate polluters. Here’s how we know:

• Befriended Corporate Polluters: Sierra Club’s recent FOIA request of Wheeler’s emails and calendars shows he, like Scott Pruitt, is all too friendly with the industries he is supposed to be regulating.

• CNN and Reuters report that Wheeler is heavily preferring meetings with industry over anyone else, attending more than 50 meetings with companies or industry groups the EPA regulates between April and August of last year, including Darling Ingredients, a company he previously lobbied for.

• Companies include: BP, Duke Energy,Monsanto, HollyFrontier, Valero, Bayer, Darling Ingredients, and American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers.

• Greenwire reports Wheeler's former lobbying firm lobbied the EPA on efforts Wheeler oversees

• Darrin Munoz, the Consulting Director of Wheeler’s former lobbying firm Faegre Baker Daniels, emailed the EPA about superfund clean up at General Mills/Henkel Corp in Minnesota. Wheeler, who oversees Superfund Cleanup, signed a financial disclosure form that he provided "strategic advice and consulting" to General Mills between 2015 and August 2017.

• Furthermore, according to reporting, Rena Steinzor, a University of Maryland Carey School of Law professor who worked on the 1986 Superfund reauthorization said Wheeler "is playing games with recusals and that's very serious," noting "It's not honest or consistent with ethical rules."

• Gave Corporate Polluters a Pass: Under Wheeler, EPA hit a 30-year low in 2018 in the number of pollution cases it referred for criminal prosecution, while, at the same, time, touting questionable programs for polluting industries to self-audit and self-report their pollution.

• Endangered Health Every 3 Days: In his first 100 days as Acting Administrator, Wheeler, on average, every three days rolled back a new climate safeguard, ignored and contradicted science, met with big polluters, limited the EPA’s ability to protect us from pollution, or gave in to corporate polluter demands.

• Refused to Protect Children from Toxic Chemicals: Wheeler is refusing to issue a national standard to protect children from per- and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) chemicals, which are fueling a water contamination crisis in hundreds of communities across the country. PFAS is in the bloodstream of an estimated 98% of Americans, and is linked to thyroid and kidney damages, pregnancy complications, and cancer. Without EPA action, the toxic chemical continues to be dumped into water supplies in our neighborhoods, military bases, and wild places.

• Rolled Back Protections from Mercury: During Trump’s needless government shutdown, instead of advancing the EPA’s core mission of protecting our land, air, and water, Wheeler used EPA’s final hours of staff time before they were furloughed to attack the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS). These lifesaving protections prevent up to 11,000 premature deaths a year, help avoid as many as 130,000 asthma attacks and keep deadly neurotoxins that impair children’s brain development out of our air and water.

• Rolled Back Clean Car Standards: Under Wheeler’s backward leadership, the EPA proposed reversing what were the single greatest and most effective strategy we had to reduce GHG emissions -- the clean car standards.

• Dirty Power Scam: Wheeler proposed gutting the Clean Power Plan and replacing it with a Dirty Power Scam. While the Clean Power Plan would prevent 3,600 premature deaths and 90,000 asthma attacks every year by 2030, Wheeler’s Dirty Power Scam will let coal-burning plants pollute our air with impunity. The Dirty Power Scam even admits it will kill up to 1,600 people every year.

• Rolled Back Protections from Methane: Wheeler released a plan to weaken key safeguards limiting methane and other harmful pollutants from the oil and gas industry. Methane is a greenhouse gas that is 87 times more potent than carbon dioxide during the time it remains in the atmosphere.