Democrats with 2020 presidential ambitions sparred with Environmental Protection Agency acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler on Wednesday, begging him to fight the climate change “crisis” and stop weakening regulations intended to address the problem.
“How does it happen that the nominee of the head of the EPA does not mention the words ‘climate change’ when the environmental community thinks it is the greatest crisis facing the planet?” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., a likely 2020 presidential candidate, noting that Wheeler did not mention climate change in the opening statement of his confirmation hearing.
Wheeler faced a grilling from ambitious Democrats of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee as he seeks to stay on as EPA administrator. He’s led the agency on an acting basis since July.
Democrats said the EPA’s proposals to weaken Obama-era climate rules shows it is not appreciative of the scale of the problem.
“You seem to be consistently doing things to undermine the health and safety of this nation,” said Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., another potential presidential candidate. “I am trying to understand what is motivating this. Why are you pulling back on regulations on what scientists say we need to do to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?”
Wheeler countered he does consider climate change a “huge issue” but not “the greatest crisis.”
“I have not used the ‘hoax’ word, myself,” he added, responding to Sanders’ criticism of President Trump’s skepticism of climate change.
Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., who also may run for president, asked Wheeler to rate his concern about climate change on a one to 10 scale.
Wheeler rated it an “eight or nine.”
Wheeler, echoing Trump, also rejected the claim that climate change is the dominant cause of record wildfires in California, which has suffered severe drought, saying poor forest management is the bigger problem.
He expressed confidence that U.S. carbon emissions will continue to fall in the future after a one-year blip in 2018 where emissions rose.
He attributed higher emissions from last year to an unusually hot summer and cold winter and increased manufacturing activity. “But I think the downward trend will continue in the long term,” he said.
Wheeler spent the bulk of his testimony boasting that EPA has finalized 13 major deregulatory actions in 2018, saving Americans roughly $1.8 billion in regulatory costs.
Since he replaced Scott Pruitt, Wheeler has introduced major actions initiated by his predecessor to delay, weaken, or repeal various regulations on air, water, and climate change.
Those include the EPA’s proposals to weaken the Obama administration’s two signature climate change regulations: His strict fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks, which were set to rise steadily through 2026, and the Clean Power Plan that was set to limit carbon emissions from power plants.
Wheeler on Wednesday minimized the damage these actions would have on reducing carbon emissions.
He claimed that the EPA’s narrow replacement of the Clean Power Plan, known as the Affordable Clean Energy or ACE rule, would reduce power sector emissions 33 to 34 percent below 2005 levels.
But most of that would happen without any regulation, due to market forces, with cheap natural gas and renewables and retiring coal plants.
Critics say the ACE rule would actually increase carbon emissions because it is designed to encourage coal plants to invest in efficiency upgrades that would allow them to burn less pollution — and exist longer than they otherwise would.
Critics also say the Trump administration’s freezing of fuel efficiency rules would not meaningfully fulfill the EPA’s legal requirement to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.
While Democrats agreed that Wheeler is implementing the Trump agenda more ethically than Pruitt, they said he has not been the moderating force he promised them he would be when he became acting leader in July.
Wheeler is “not the ethically bereft embarrassment that Scott Pruitt proved to be,” said Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, the committee’s top Democrat. But his policies are “almost as extreme as his predecessor.”
“One of the things I don’t sense here is a sense of urgency,” Carper added at the close of the hearing, which lasted nearly three hours. “I’m looking for some passion here and I’m not feeling it and that’s deeply troubling. That may not be your nature. But we need it.”
Still, Democrats are helpless to stop Wheeler from being confirmed without the votes to do so.
