Sierra Club Statement: With his Deadly Agenda, Wehrum Padded Corporate Polluters' Accounts; Now He May Look to Pad his Own

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, the EPA announced that Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation, Bill Wehrum, will leave the EPA at the end of the month. In addition to his efforts on several rollbacks of clean air and climate safeguards, Wehrum was the architect of the Trump-Pruitt-Wheeler EPA’s gutting of the Clean Power Plan and clean car standards. In a congressional hearing last week, Wehrum four times refused to answer Representative McNerney’s questions on whether he believes in climate science and whether it poses a danger to human health. 

Wehrum is a former lobbyist for coal, oil, gas, and chemical companies who has said that the Clean Air Act shouldn't apply to the carbon pollution that contributes to the climate crisis. Earlier this month, the Huffington Post reported that Wehrum gave a presentation at a fringe climate denier event. Late last year, the Huffington Post also reported that Wehrum was visiting with Hunton Andrews Kurth, the fossil fuel lobbying firm that previously employed him, just one month after starting at EPA. The emails between Wehrum and Hunton Andrews Kurth reveal that Hunton lawyers were seeking inside information and looking to influence Wehrum’s decisions. 

Wehrum is facing calls for investigations from the House, Senate, and independent government watchdog organizations over repeated ethics violations around his communications with former fossil fuel industry clients at the same time he was rolling back and gutting clean air standards to the benefit of those clients. Because of an exemption to Trump’s ethics pledge, Wehrum won’t have to wait 5 years to begin lobbying the Trump administration on certain issues. 

In response, Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune released the following statement:

"From day one, Bill Wehrum made it clear he was at the EPA to do the bidding of the corporate polluters he counted among his lobbying clients, not to protect the health and safety of American families. The result is that the health of thousands of communities and millions of people are now imperiled because of the rollbacks Wehrum oversaw. It’s telling that Wehrum is leaving the EPA after rolling back and gutting our biggest tools to solve the climate crisis and undermining fundamental protections that keep toxic pollution out of our air. Anyone with a conscience would avoid hiring Wehrum, but we fully expect corporate polluters to welcome him with open arms where he’ll cash in on his deadly and dangerous record.”