Ethics questions have dogged EPA Assistant Administrator Bill Wehrum since his 2017 nomination by President Donald Trump. He long represented the fossil fuels and chemical industries as a Washington lawyer.
Environmental Protection Agency chief Andrew Wheeler, a former coal industry lobbyist, signed a replacement rule that gives states leeway in deciding whether to require efficiency upgrades at existing coal plants.
Around the country, the Environmental Protection Agency is delegating a widening range of public health and environmental enforcement to states, saying local officials know best how to deal with local problems. Critics contend federal regulators are making a dangerous retreat on enforcement that puts people and the environment at greater risk.
The findings provided some of the first strong support by investigators of the series of ethics allegations that led to Scott Pruitt’s resignation last July.
Senators voted 52-47 to confirm Andrew Wheeler, who was nominated by President Donald Trump after former administrator Scott Pruitt resigned last year amid a series of ethics allegations.
The 11-10 vote by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee sends President Donald Trump's nomination of acting Environmental Protection Agency chief and former coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler to the full Senate.
As President Donald Trump and Congress battle over Trump's demand for a wall on the southern U.S. border, the 3-week-old partial government shutdown has stopped federal work on toxic sites except for cases where the administration deems "there is an imminent threat to the safety of human life or to the protection of property."
The scaling back of federal oversight is "recognizing and respecting the primary authority of states and tribes" over the waterways, R.D. James, assistant secretary of the Army for civil works, said during a ceremony at EPA headquarters.
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