Pruitt's Replacement

Slime, graft, cronyism and swampiness.

Quote :

Speaking on Wednesday, Inhofe offered an alternative. In April, the Senate voted to confirm Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist and Inhofe aide, as the EPA’s deputy administrator, putting him next in line to become the de facto agency chief if Pruitt departed. Wheeler would need to be confirmed in another Senate vote to permanently replace Pruitt, but the federal government’s acting rules are complicated and riddled with loopholes that give the White House leeway over who commands an agency in the absence of its Senate-approved chieftain.

Wheeler is an ardent climate change denier who, in 2010, suggested the EPA could “reconsider” the so-called endangerment finding that established carbon dioxide as a harmful pollutant legally required to be regulated under the Clean Air Act. The finding serves as the legal undergirding of the federal government’s efforts to combat climate change. Before joining the EPA, Wheeler worked as a lobbyist for Bob Murray, the coal tycoon wielding unprecedented influence over the Trump administration’s energy and environmental agenda.

“There’s a guy behind him in Andrew Wheeler who’s really qualified too,” Inhofe said. “So that might be a good swap.”

Pruitt's out, Wheeler's in.  Let the fun begin.

Meanwhile, hopefully the prosecution of Pruitt for misappropriation while in office will continue and send his sorry ass to jail.