Washington, DC – Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW), released the following statement on today’s party-line vote in the EPW Committee to advance the nomination of Andrew Wheeler to be Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator:
“Andrew Wheeler is a fossil fuel lobbyist nominated to run the agency regulating the fossil fuel industry. It would be comical if it weren’t so serious. If confirmed, Wheeler will take every opportunity to chip away at – or chop down – vital protections for our environment and public health using phony science supplied by his polluter patrons. When he’s done serving polluters at the EPA, there’s every reason to believe he’ll be taken care of by them for the rest of his life – time will tell. As this nomination heads to the Senate floor, I hope my colleagues across the aisle think long and hard before confirming a walking conflict of interest to lead our EPA.”
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