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Also see: Environment;
Jump to: 2018; 2019;
Undated: Andrew R. Wheeler (born December 23, 1964) is an American attorney and serves as the 15th Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).[1] He served as the deputy administrator from April to July 2018, and served as the acting administrator from July 2018 to February 2019. He previously worked in the law firm Faegre Baker Daniels, representing coal magnate Robert E. Murray and lobbying against the Obama Administration's environmental regulations.[2] Wheeler served as chief counsel to the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and to the chairman U.S. Senator James Inhofe, prominent for his rejection of climate change.[3] Wheeler is a critic of limits on greenhouse gas emissions and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.[4] He is a former coal industry lobbyist.
In October 2017, Wheeler was nominated by President Donald Trump,[5] renominated in January 2018[6] and confirmed as Deputy Administrator of the EPA in April 2018.[7] On July 9, 2018, Wheeler became the Acting Administrator following the resignation of Scott Pruitt.[8] On November 16, 2018, President Trump announced he would nominate Wheeler to serve as the EPA's permanent administrator.[9] He was confirmed for the position by a 52-47 vote in the Senate on February 28, 2019.[10]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_R._Wheeler
Undated: Lobbyists in (and out of) the Trump Administration
President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order within his first days of office forbidding Executive Branch appointees from lobbying for five years after employment in the Administration. The Order also forbids former registered lobbyists now working in the White House from participating in areas they had previously lobbied on for a period of two years.
Despite this directive, these men and women made their way through the revolving door and were either previously lobbyists and now work in the Trump Administration or were previously in the Administration and work as lobbyists.
[Includes Andrew Wheeler]
https://www.opensecrets.org/trump/lobbyists
-- 2018 --
July 6: Get To Know Andrew Wheeler, Ex-Coal Lobbyist With Inside Track To Lead EPAWheeler has presented himself as a consensus builder: "I will turn to the career staff and ask their advice and listen to them," he told the EPW committee during a confirmation hearing last fall for EPA deputy.
Yet for many critics, who have watched with apprehension as Wheeler ascended the EPA ladder, that kind of experience and approach is beside the point.
"We have in Andrew Wheeler someone who has made a career out of trying to block everything we've done to try to protect our children from the growing dangers of climate change — a person who has made a career out of trying to push back against common-sense safeguards to protect the air we breathe from dangerous chemicals like mercury, arsenic and others," says Bob Deans of the Natural Resources Defense Council. "And that's not in any way a qualification to lead the Environmental Protection Agency."
https://www.npr.org/2018/07/06/626525274/get-to-know-andrew-wheeler-ex-coal-lobbyist-with-inside-track-to-lead-epa
July 6: How Andrew Wheeler, the New Acting E.P.A. Chief, Differs From Scott Pruitt
The departure of Scott Pruitt, the scandal-plagued former head of the Environmental Protection Agency, means that the agency will be led in the coming months by Mr. Pruitt’s deputy, Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist who shares Mr. Pruitt’s zeal to undo environmental regulations.
But unlike Mr. Pruitt — who had come to Washington as an outsider and aspiring politician, only to get caught up in a swirl of controversy over his costly first-class travel and security spending — Mr. Wheeler is viewed as a consummate Washington insider who avoids the limelight and has spent years effectively navigating the rules.
For that reason, Mr. Wheeler’s friends and critics alike say, he could ultimately prove to be more adept than his controversial former boss in the job.
https://www.proag.com/news/how-andrew-wheeler-the-new-acting-e-p-a-chief-differs-from-scott-pruitt/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI_PfKxuyL4QIVvyCtBh25CQGnEAMYASAAEgJCgvD_BwE
-- 2019 --
January 16: Andrew Wheeler: Trump's EPA pick says climate change 'not the greatest crisis'
The former coal lobbyist took over the EPA when his predecessor Scott Pruitt resigned after months of controversy
Democrats said Wheeler’s policies have been as damaging to the environment as Pruitt’s, just without the high-profile scandals.
Although Wheeler is likely to be confirmed, they sought to pin him down on climate change, in a show of how the environment could become a top issue in the 2020 presidential race.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/16/andrew-wheeler-climate-change-trump-epa-hearings
February 19: Trump EPA Pick Andrew Wheeler Gets Caught Between Oil and Corn Interests
http://fortune.com/2019/02/19/oil-corn-andrew-wheeler-epa/
February 28: The Senate confirmed Andrew Wheeler, a former coal industry lobbyist, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, in a 52-47 vote Thursday primarily along party lines.
Wheeler, also a former Republican Senate aide on environmental issues, has been acting administrator since July, when former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt resigned amid a host of ethics controversies.
Since Wheeler began leading the agency, he has continued work on many of the same priorities as his predecessor, including looking to roll back Obama-era air and water pollution regulations.
But Wheeler has brought a level of stability to the agency that didn't exist under Pruitt, keeping a relatively low profile while continuing to make progress towards meeting the Trump administration's policy goals for the agency.
He has met often with industry representatives. Wheeler attended or held more than 50 meetings with representatives of companies or industry groups regulated by the EPA between April and August of 2018, a CNN review of his internal schedules found.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/28/politics/andrew-wheeler-confirmation/index.html
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