Environmental Protection Agency: Replacing Bad with Worse

Dorothy: I thought you said she was dead.

Glinda (aka Good Witch of the North): That was her sister, the Witch of the East. This is the Witch of the West, and she’s worse than the other one.

It seems probable that Scott Pruitt may soon be removed as a result of the ethics scandals he’s so foolishly brought on himself. That, of course, would be good news for everyone with lungs if it weren’t for the fact that he would be replaced by the EPA’s new Senate-confirmed second-in-command, Andrew Wheeler, former coal lobbyist who “not only shares the deregulatory zeal of Scott Pruitt, the E.P.A. chief, but also his doubtful view of climate science.”

From the article linked above:

Unlike Mr. Pruitt, a Washington outsider caught in a swirl of controversy over his costly first-class travel and security spending, Mr. Wheeler is viewed as a low-key insider with years of Washington experience in the art of pursuing policy change while avoiding public distraction.

Deregulation is among President Trump’s central campaign promises, and Mr. Pruitt has proposed ambitious rollbacks of rules governing clean air and water and fighting against climate change. But many of his initiatives have stumbled because of haste or imprecision, and at least six have been struck down by the courts. That makes the arrival of Mr. Wheeler’s expertise particularly consequential.

In fact, on Thursday Mr. Trump also sent new marching orders to the E.P.A., directing the agency to weaken or delay implementation of a variety of air pollution regulations, several of which have been priorities for industries for which Mr. Wheeler has lobbied in the past.

Among other things, the proposals would reverse an Obama-era policy of forcing federally designed pollution restriction plans on states that fail to meet national standards for reducing soot, smog, and nitrogen oxide. They would also allow states that fail to meet clean air standards not to comply with regulations if they attribute the dirtier air to pollution that drifted from Asia.

Mr. Pruitt, in a statement, said, “This memorandum helps ensure that E.P.A. carries out its core mission, while reducing regulatory burdens for domestic manufacturing.”

Democrats have long sought to delay Mr. Wheeler’s confirmation. “He’s part of the climate denial fringe, he’s a coal lobbyist and there’s a possibility he’ll be running the agency if Scott Pruitt goes down,” said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). 

It would be very resourceful of us to liquidate Wheeler as soon as we’re able, insofar as we have a vast set of environmental responsibilities to our home planet, and there is, of course, no place like home.