Andrew Wheeler during his confirmation hearing to be Deputy Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency before the United States Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on November 8th, 2017.

Andrew Wheeler, deputy administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency, will become the agency's acting chief following the resignation of Scott Pruitt, President Donald Trump said Thursday.

"I have no doubt that Andy will continue on with our great and lasting EPA agenda," Trump said in the same pair of tweets in which he announced Pruitt's resignation. "We have made tremendous progress and the future of the EPA is very bright!"

Wheeler will take over on Monday, Trump said.

Under Pruitt, the EPA became known more as a magnet for negative news bombshells than for its control over the Trump administration's environmental policy. But like his predecessor, Wheeler could prove to be a controversial pick among Trump's opponents, if only on policy grounds.

At the time of his resignation, Pruitt was mired in at least a dozen ethics probes into his workplace conduct and spending practices. While Trump heartily approved of Pruitt's deregulatory moves at the head of the EPA, a steady trickle of bad press prompted the White House in recent weeks to repeatedly express concerns.</s>WASHINGTON (CBSMiami) – Scott Pruitt, the controversial Environmental Protection Agency Administrator, is out of a job.

I have accepted the resignation of Scott Pruitt as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Within the Agency Scott has done an outstanding job, and I will always be thankful to him for this. The Senate confirmed Deputy at EPA, Andrew Wheeler, will…

Andrew Wheeler, the Deputy Aministrator of the EPA, will take over for Pruitt beginning on Monday.

This is a developing story and will be updated.</s>President Donald Trump said Trump he has accepted the resignation of Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt.

“I have accepted the resignation of Scott Pruitt as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Within the Agency Scott has done an outstanding job, and I will always be thankful to him for this. The Senate confirmed Deputy at EPA, Andrew Wheeler, will on Monday assume duties as the acting Administrator of the EPA. I have no doubt that Andy will continue on with our great and lasting EPA agenda. We have made tremendous progress and the future of the EPA is very bright!” Trump tweeted Thursday.

Pruitt has found himself at odds with Iowa’s entire Congressional delegation due to his actions to undermine the Renewable Fuel Standard. Senator Charles Grassley had said in recent months he was close to calling for Pruitt’s resignation.</s>WASHINGTON -- Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt resigned Thursday amid a number of scandals. President Trump said on Twitter he accepted Pruitt's resignation and announced that Pruitt's deputy at the EPA, Andrew Wheeler, will serve as acting administrator starting Monday.

Wheeler, a former coal industry lobbyist, was confirmed as Pruitt's No. 2 in April despite complaints from Democrats that Wheeler helped lead a fight by the coal industry to block regulations that protect Americans' health and begin to address climate change.

In April, Jeff Turrentine, the Culture & Politics columnist at The National Resources Defense Council's magazine onEarth, wrote: "If you're hoping Wheeler could represent some sort of departure from Pruitt's (literal) scorched-earth agenda, he wouldn't."

Until his nomination by President Trump last fall, Wheeler worked as a lobbyist with a client list that included Murray Energy, one of the nation's largest coal mining companies. He accompanied Murray CEO Robert "Bob" Murray during a series of closed-door meetings to lobby the Trump administration to kill environmental regulations affecting coal mines.

"Andrew Wheeler's coal credentials are without equal. He is, without question, a member of the coal industry's Hall of Fame," Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., said in April.

"Sadly, I am concerned that Andrew Wheeler's background means that he will never understand that saving coal is not the job of the EPA," Markey added. "It is the EPA's job to regulate coal to protect public health and the environment."

Republicans earlier this year countered that Wheeler, 53, was well-qualified to lead the agency, having worked at the EPA early in his career and serving as Republican staff chief of the Senate Environment Committee before becoming a lobbyist nine years ago.

Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, chairman of the Senate environment panel, had said Wheeler demonstrated his commitment to sound environmental policies and has "exemplified excellence in his professional endeavors," both in government and in the private sector.

During his confirmation hearing to become the No. 2 at the EPA, senators asked Wheeler about the meeting with the Trump administration on behalf of Murray Energy during a hearing last November. Wheeler acknowledged he attended but said he couldn't remember any details.

Photos later emerged that showed Wheeler sitting at the table during an undisclosed meeting where Murray handed Energy Secretary Rick Perry a four-page "action plan" to revive the nation's struggling coal industry. The Trump administration later carried out several of the recommended actions.

Like Pruitt, Wheeler has expressed public skepticism about the consensus of climate scientists that the continued burning of fossil fuels is the primary cause of global warming.</s>
• After months of ethics scandals, Scott Pruitt resigned as head of the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday.
• In a series of tweets, President Donald Trump announced Pruitt’s resignation and said deputy EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler would take his place for now.
• Wheeler is a former coal lobbyist, and some experts think he could be more effective at undoing environmental protections than Pruitt was.

After months of ethical and financial scandals, Scott Pruitt has resigned as head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Pruitt’s long list of scandals included reportedly sending his staffers out in search of pricey beauty creams, spending high sums on first-class flights, instituting a 24-hour security detail, and purchasing an infamously expensive $43,000 phone booth, all on the public’s dime.

President Donald Trump tweeted on Thursday that Pruitt had done an “outstanding” job leading the EPA, and that deputy administrator Andrew Wheeler will become acting administrator of the EPA starting Monday.

“He was very much an early Trump supporter,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One, referring to Wheeler. “He was with us on the campaign. He is a very environmental person. He’s a big believer, and he’s going to do a fantastic job.”

Pruitt’s agenda for the EPA involved delays and rollbacks of previously enacted environmental regulations, so environmentalists cautiously cheered his resignation while expressing concern about Wheeler.

“While we applaud Pruitt’s departure, our focus now shifts to acting administrator and coal industry crony Andrew Wheeler,” Erich Pica, president of the environmental organization Friends of the Earth, said in a statement. “Fossil fuel industry insiders have no business leading the EPA and we will hold Wheeler accountable for his efforts to harm our public health and environment.”

Wheeler, a Washington University law school graduate, spent the first four years of his career at the EPA under presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. At that time, he was a special assistant in the Pollution Prevention and Toxics office, working on issues involving pollution and chemicals.

Since then, Wheeler has zig-zagged between lobbying Capitol Hill and working inside the halls of the federal government. On the lobbying side, he has worked for big names in the beltway energy sector, including Murray Energy (coal), Domestic Energy Solutions Group, Whirlpool Corporation, Xcel Energy and at least a dozen others, which ProPublica lists online.

Most recently, Wheeler worked for law firm Faegre Baker Daniels as an attorney, consultant, and co-chair of the firm’s Energy and Natural Resources Industry team, according to Wheeler’s EPA biography.

On the governement side, Wheeler has worked as chief of staff for Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) and on staff for Senator George Voinovich (R-OH) as well.

He held several roles on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works from 2003 to 2009: majority staff director, minority staff director, and chief counsel.

According to a biography posted on ProPublica’s website, Wheeler worked on “every major piece of environmental and energy-related legislation before Congress for over a decade.”

For example, he worked for the Committee on Environment and Public Works when the Clear Skies Act of 2003 was proposed, which aimed to reduce restrictions on toxins in the air. He was also there for the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, which raised taxes on oil and gas producers in the US.

Wheeler doesn’t deny the scientific facts of climate change, but said during his confirmation hearing that the human impact on the Earth’s rising temperature is “not completely understood,” as Inside Climate News reported.

Scott Segal, a fossil fuel lobbyist who has worked with Wheeler, told The New York Times: “He’s a careful, studious person. A quiet fellow. He knows the agency very, very well.”

Many environmentalists are fearful about what that savvy perspective might mean for the future of the EPA. The agency is tasked with protecting the nation’s air and water, but the Trump administration has pushed to undo a host of environmental regulations.

Jeremy Symons, vice president for political affairs at the Environmental Defense Fund, put it bluntly to Politico:

“Wheeler is much smarter and will try to keep his efforts under the radar in implementing Trump’s destructive agenda,” Symons said, comparing Wheeler to Pruitt. “That should scare anyone who breathes.”</s>U.S. President Donald Trump has announced the resignation of Scott Pruitt, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Mr Trump in a tweet announcing the resignation said Mr Pruitt’s deputy, Andrew Wheeler, would assume duty on Monday as Acting Administrator.

“I have accepted the resignation of Scott Pruitt as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

“Within the Agency, Scott has done an outstanding job, and I will always be thankful to him for this.

“The Senate confirmed Deputy at EPA, Andrew Wheeler, will on Monday assume duties as the acting Administrator of the EPA.

“I have no doubt that Andy will continue on with our great and lasting EPA agenda. We have made tremendous progress and the future of the EPA is very bright!” Mr Trump tweeted.

Pruitt was on Monday confronted while dining with a friend at Teaism restaurant in Washington, D.C., by a teacher identified as Kristin Mink, 33, holding her two-year-old son.

He was Trump’s point man for the administration’s plan to roll back environmental regulations, many of which were put in place by the former President Barack Obama administration.

Mr Pruitt moved to quash or replace numerous environmental regulations opposed by industry lobbyists while boosting the continued burning of fossil fuels, which scientists have concluded is the primary cause of climate change.

His tenure was quickly overshadowed by a number of controversies, including spending 25,000 dollars retrofitting his D.C. office to include a soundproof booth, another 9,600 dollars on office furniture, 3,000 dollars to have the space swept for bugs and surveillance equipment, and another 1,560 dollars on a dozen custom pens.

He was caught taking a 163,000 dollars first-class, chartered, taxpayer-funded flight to watch Wimbledon tennis tournament in 2017, and rented an apartment in D.C. that lists for 4,300 dollars a month for just 50 dollars a night but only paid for the nights that he actually slept there.</s>I have accepted the resignation of Scott Pruitt as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Within the Agency Scott has done an outstanding job, and I will always be thankful to him for this. The Senate confirmed Deputy at EPA, Andrew Wheeler, will... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 5, 2018

...on Monday assume duties as the acting Administrator of the EPA. I have no doubt that Andy will continue on with our great and lasting EPA agenda. We have made tremendous progress and the future of the EPA is very bright! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 5, 2018

President Donald Trump says he has accepted the resignation of scandal-plagued Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt.Pruitt had become a constant source of embarrassment to a president who had entered Washington promising to "Drain the Swamp."Pruitt has faced an array of ethical questions about his travel spending, security costs, dealings with industry lobbyists and misuse of government resources.He had denied wrongdoing in the face of multiple congressional and oversight inquiries.Despite the scandals, Trump has been approving of Pruitt's efforts to reduce regulations that the administration says curb business growth. Trump writes on Twitter, "Within the Agency Scott has done an outstanding job."Activists have argued those cuts have endangered the environment.Trump tweets that Deputy Administrator Andrew Wheeler will assume the acting administrator position Monday.Trump praised Pruitt's performance in the tweets, saying he had done an "outstanding job" as EPA administrator.Andrew Wheeler, Pruitt's deputy, will take over as acting administrator Monday, Trump said in the tweets."We have made tremendous progress and the future of the EPA is very bright!" Trump tweeted.</s>WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says he has accepted the resignation of scandal-plagued Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt.

Pruitt had become a constant source of embarrassment to a president who had entered Washington promising to “Drain the Swamp.”

Pruitt has faced an array of ethical questions about his travel spending, security costs, dealings with industry lobbyists and misuse of government resources.

He had denied wrongdoing in the face of multiple congressional and oversight inquiries.

Despite the scandals, Trump has been approving of Pruitt’s efforts to reduce regulations that the administration says curb business growth. Trump writes on Twitter, “Within the Agency Scott has done an outstanding job.”

Activists have argued those cuts have endangered the environment.

Trump tweets that Deputy Administrator Andrew Wheeler will assume the acting administrator position Monday.

Trump tweeted, "I have accepted the resignation of Scott Pruitt as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Within the Agency Scott has done an outstanding job, and I will always be thankful to him for this. The Senate confirmed Deputy at EPA, Andrew Wheeler, will... on Monday assume duties as the acting Administrator of the EPA. I have no doubt that Andy will continue on with our great and lasting EPA agenda. We have made tremendous progress and the future of the EPA is very bright!"</s>After allegedly overspending on everything from pens to lavish trips and accepting questionable deals from lobbyists, government ethics and watchdog groups say Scott Pruitt’s resignation as Environmental Protection Agency administrator is long overdue. During his one-year tenure, Pruitt was seen by conservatives as one of President Donald Trump’s most effective Cabinet members, working relentlessly to dismantle Obama-era regulations aimed at reducing pollution. Stephen Spaulding with Common Cause says Pruitt’s questionable past was widely known – and his group had urged Congress to delay the confirmation, when Pruitt withheld documents revealing corporate influence in his decisions as Oklahoma attorney general.

Spaulding says he has similar reservations about Andrew Wheeler, a former coal-company lobbyist and now E-P-A deputy administrator, who will take Pruitt’s place as acting administrator on Monday. Pruitt expressed no regrets in a letter submitted to media outlets on Thursday.

Environmental groups predict the Trump administration will continue its pattern of appointing the least likely candidate to head the agency. Kara Cook-Schultz is director of U-S PIRG’s toxics program, and thinks the president should take time to really understand the purpose of the E-P-A.

Like President Trump, Pruitt voiced skepticism about mainstream climate science. Andrew Wheeler also doubts that humans are a primary cause of climate change.</s>WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Thursday announced the departure of his environment chief, Scott Pruitt, who faced ever-growing ethics scandals over his spending and conduct in office. “I have accepted the resignation of Scott Pruitt as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency ,” tweeted the president, ending months of speculation about the future of the man he had tasked with dismantling former President Barack Obama’s green legacy.“Within the agency, Scott has done an outstanding job, and I will always be thankful to him for this,” added Trump.Trump told journalists aboard Air Force One that there was “no final straw” that led to Pruitt’s departure, and that the move— which he said had been in the works for “a couple of days”—was “very much up to him”.“He came to me and he said, ‘have such great confidence in the administration. I don’t want to be a distraction.’ And I think Scott felt that he was a distraction,” said Trump.Trump tweeted that Pruitt’s deputy, the former coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler , would take over on Monday as acting head of the agency.Pruitt had become the focus of multiple investigations in recent months, including by his own agency’s inspector general, two other independent federal agencies and by Congress itself. The list of accusations levelled against the 50-year-old EPA chief had grown almost too long to itemise.All the charges share a common thread: he appears to have used the position he has held since February 2017 to enrich his and his own family’s lifestyle in violation of federal law while punishing subordinates who raised objections to his behaviour, or who failed to show sufficient loyalty to him.
U.S. President Donald Trump announces the resignation of Scott Pruitt as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Former coal lobbyist Andrew R. Wheeler will act as a temporary replacement.