Andrew R. Wheeler

Wheeler's first job between 1991 and 1995 was as special assistant to the Information Management Division director in the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics[14][3] working on toxic chemical, pollution prevention, and right-to-know issues. Wheeler received the Agency's bronze medal in 1993 and twice in 1994.[15]

From January 1995 until January 1997, Wheeler worked as Chief Counsel of Senator Jim Inhofe.[3] In 1997, Wheeler entered his first work in Congress as majority staff director at the US Senate Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate Change, Wetlands, and Nuclear Safety, which Inhofe chaired until 2001; thereafter he was minority staff director under Chairman George Voinovich from 2001 to 2003. From 2003 to 2009, he was chief counsel at the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.[6] During this time, Wheeler generally sought to reduce government regulations on industries that generate greenhouse gases.[16] Senator James Inhofe was prominent for his rejection of climate change, and famously brought a snowball to the Senate as alleged proof that climate change was not real.[16][4]

During his time at the Senate, Wheeler was named by the National Journal as one of the Top Congressional Staff Leaders in 2005 and was a John C. Stennis Congressional Staff Fellow in the 106th Congress.[15]

From 2009 until 2017, Wheeler was a lobbyist in the law firm Faegre Baker Daniels' energy and natural resources practice.[17][18] Since 2009, he represented the coal producer Murray Energy,[19] privately owned by Robert E. Murray, a supporter of President Trump.[20] Murray Energy was Wheeler's best-paying client, paying at least $300,000,[4] and possibly as much as $3,300,000[21] during the period 2009–2017. Wheeler lobbied against the Obama administration's climate regulations for power plants and also sought to persuade the Energy Department to subsidize coal plants.[3] Wheeler set up a meeting between Murray and Energy Secretary Rick Perry in March 2017; at the meeting, Murray advocated for the rollback of environmental regulations and for protections for the coal industry.[4][22]

In October 2017, Wheeler was nominated by President Trump to become Deputy Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency.[6] His nomination was returned to the White House on January 3, 2018, as the Senate had adjourned at the end of 2017 without taking up the nomination (Senate Rule XXXI, paragraph 6[7]). His nomination was resubmitted and he was confirmed as Deputy Administrator of the EPA on April 12, 2018, by a mostly party-line vote of 53–45, which included three Democratic senators: Joe Manchin, Heidi Heitkamp, and Joe Donnelly.[8]

Since being sworn in, Wheeler has had at least three meetings with former lobbying clients of his in a potential violation of the Trump administration's ethics pledge and the promises that Wheeler made during his confirmation hearing.[23] Justina Fugh, an EPA ethics official, said that Wheeler's meetings with former lobbying clients did not violate the Trump administration's ethics pledge, because Wheeler had not worked on their behalf in the two years prior to joining the EPA.[24] Vermont senator Bernie Sanders said he was "vigorously opposed" to Wheeler replacing Pruitt.[25]

Scott Pruitt announced on July 5, 2018, he would be resigning effective July 6. He left Wheeler as the acting head of the agency.[9][26] On October 14, 2018, The New York Times published an op-ed against Wheeler's proposal to denigrate the public health benefits of reducing air pollution, aimed at a 2011 Obama administration finding that saw this as an asset to any information in controlling a particular pollutant.[27] Later, on November 16, 2018, Wheeler was nominated to be Administrator of the EPA, after being deputy administrator for five months.[28]

In 2018, after a National Climate Assessment report about the impact of climate change in the United States was released by the Trump administration (which had been in the works for several years, stretching into the Obama presidency), the EPA under Wheeler's tenure dismissed the report's findings. The EPA falsely claimed that the Obama administration had pushed the authors of the report to focus on the worst-case scenario. In doing so, the EPA cited a story by the Daily Caller, a conservative website founded by Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson. FactCheck.Org wrote about the Daily Caller story that there was no evidence for the claims made, the report focused both on lower and higher scenarios, and much of the report looked at climate change impacts that had already occurred. FactCheck.Org noted that the report underwent multiple reviews, both internally and externally, and that the report was available for public review for three months. The Daily Caller cited as evidence for its claims a memo that allegedly showed that the Obama administration pushed the authors of the report to include worst-case scenarios; FactCheck.Org noted the memo "does not show that the Obama administration pushed for certain scenarios".[29]

Asked in November 2018 to name three EPA policies that had contributed to cleaner air, Wheeler struggled to answer, and two of his three answers were about rollbacks of Obama administration policies intended to curb pollution.[30]

Wheeler speaks in September 2019.

Wheeler's nomination to become head of the EPA was confirmed by the Senate in a 52–47 vote in February 2019, in a largely party-line vote.[11][31]

In 2019, Wheeler argued in favor of a proposed EPA rule that would prohibit the EPA from using studies that do not make raw data publicly available,[32] a rule first proposed under Wheeler's predecessor, Scott Pruitt.[33] Wheeler framed the proposal as a "transparency" rule; scientists opposed the rule, stating that it would seriously limit the research available to the EPA, because studies do not tend to make personal and confidential information available.[32][33] The proposal could prevent EPA from using many important studies underpinning various regulations, including regulations on air pollution.[32] The proposed rule was denounced by 69 scientific and medical groups (including the American Lung Association, American Medical Association, and American Psychological Association) and the editors of five leading scientific journals (Nature, Cell, PLOS One, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences).[33] A bipartisan group of former EPA administrators, testifying before the House Energy Subcommittee on Oversight, also criticized proposals to restrict the use of science in EPA decision making.[34] The EPA's Science Advisory Board also pushed back against the proposal.[32]

In September 2019, Wheeler signed a directive to prioritize efforts to reduce animal testing. Instead, the research should focus on new alternative test methods. The goal is to reduce its requests for, and funding of, mammal studies by 30% by 2025 and eliminate all mammal study requests and funding by 2035, though some may still be approved on a case-by-case basis.[35]

In March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, the EPA declared that for an indefinite amount of time, it would generally not fine companies for violating environment regulations for "routine compliance monitoring [of pollution], integrity testing, sampling, laboratory analysis, training, and reporting or certification obligations", if the EPA agreed that the COVID-19 pandemic caused the violation. Wheeler said that the EPA "recognizes challenges resulting from efforts to protect workers and the public from Covid-19 may directly impact the ability of regulated facilities to meet all federal regulatory requirements."[36][37]

In April 2020, the EPA declined to raise environmental standards for fine soot pollution (PM 2.5), during a mandated review. A draft scientific assessment by the EPA had estimated that the current standards (12 micrograms per cubic meter) were "associated with 45,000 deaths" per year, but if the standards were raised (9 micrograms per cubic meter), then 12,150 lives would be saved. After the publication of that report, numerous industries, including oil and coal companies, automakers and chemical manufacturers, urged the Trump administration to disregard the findings and not tighten the rule. The draft of the new rule stated Wheeler placed "little weight on quantitative estimates" of deaths caused by fine soot pollution, reported the New York Times.[38]

Also in April 2020, the EPA weakened mercury regulation in the United States by drastically curtailing the health benefits considered in calculations for making future regulations. Wheeler declared that this was a "honest accounting method", while the Trump administration took the stance that mercury cleanup was not "appropriate and necessary".[39]

Wheeler did not enact any rules that reduced air pollution or carbon emissions.[40]

In 2022, Governor of Virginia Glenn Youngkin nominated Wheeler to serve as the Virginia secretary of natural resources, but his confirmation vote was tabled by the Virginia Senate by a vote of 19–21. Pursuant to the Virginia Constitution, Wheeler assumed office immediately upon being nominated, and was eligible to continue serving until his nomination expired.[41][42] After it became clear he had no path to confirmation, Wheeler stepped down on March 15 to serve as a senior advisor to Youngkin, and Deputy Secretary Travis Voyles took over as Acting Secretary. Wheeler was the first Virginia Cabinet nominee to be denied confirmation since 2006.[43]