Washington, DC – Today, at a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse pressed the nominee for Deputy Administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Andrew Wheeler, for a list of coal magnate Robert Murray’s policy priorities, which Murray presented to President Trump upon entering office. Murray bragged of giving the three-page “action plan” to Trump in the Frontline document “War on the EPA,” which aired last month.
“Coal baron Bob Murray, CEO of one of the largest polluters in the country, has given pages of marching orders to President Trump,” said Whitehouse following the hearing. “He’s boasted that the administration is already carrying those orders out. Now, unsurprisingly, we know Murray handed his wish list to his lobbyist, who’s before the Committee as President Trump’s nominee to serve as the second in command of the agency charged with regulating Murray’s business.”
Wheeler, who served as a lobbyist for Murray’s coal company, Murray Energy, until earlier this year, confirmed the existence of the action plan memo, testifying that he had seen the document.
“Administrator Pruitt and his fellow industry hacks are facilitating the wholesale capture of the EPA. If he is putting Bob Murray’s priorities ahead of Americans’ health and safety, Congress needs to know,” Whitehouse said.
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