Wheeler, tapped by Trump to replace Scott Pruitt as EPA administrator after Pruitt resigned last year under an ethical cloud, is likely to be confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate despite opposition from many Democrats who fear he will aggressively combat climate change.
In particular, Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, sharply objected to Wheeler’s claim that the wildfires which last year burned millions of acres of forests and killed more than 80 people in the West Coast had “some relation to climate change, but the biggest issue, in my opinion, is forest management,” referring to thinning out forests.
Merkley acknowledged that thicker forests have contributed to the fires, but called Wheeler’s answer “disheartening,” adding that forest management “is not the reason these fires are so” widespread. “It’s because the summer season is so much hotter and longer.”
Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., said Wheeler was “100 percent wrong” for saying that climate change is an “issue” as opposed to a “crisis.”
By contrast, Republican Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, who chairs the committee, defended Wheeler, saying he would take financial costs into consideration when developing new environmental rules.
Wheeler, who answered questions in a calm, matter-of-fact style, did not seem to inspire the intensity of anger that Democrats had against Pruitt.
“Mr. Wheeler is certainly not the ethically bereft embarrassment that Scott Pruitt proved to be and – to be fair – he has engaged more frequently and substantively than Scott Pruitt with both Congress and EPA career staff,” said Sen. Tom Carper, D-Delaware, the committee’s ranking Democrat.
But Carper, a 1968 graduate of Ohio State University, said Wheeler’s “environmental policies appear to be just as extreme as his predecessor’s.”
In a conference call with Ohio reporters, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, a critic of Wheeler, said he was “not ready to say” he would vote against Wheeler on the floor “until I study it a little bit more.”
(Jessica Wehrman of the Washington Bureau contributed to this story.)