February 7, 2018 - On Feb. 7th, the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee voted to send former Senate staff member and lobbyist Andrew Wheeler’s nomination for the No. 2 job at the EPA to the Senate floor. On a party-line vote, the EPW Committee advanced Wheeler’s nomination to serve as the deputy administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
The vote came after Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) made his objections known about the EPA’s responses and actions.
Carper, who is the environment committee’s ranking Democrat, initially agreed to withdraw his objections to Wheeler’s nomination if the White House withdrew its backing of Kathleen Hartnett White to head the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Hartnett White, a senior fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, has dismissed the threat of climate change in earlier speeches and articles.
Though Hartnett White withdrew her name from consideration from that post, Carper still expressed concerns about supporting Wheeler. In addition to being a lobbyist, Wheeler served as the majority staff director and chief counsel to the EPW Committee under the chairmanship of Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK). (Bloomberg, 2/7/18)
