Pruitt Has Been Gone For Less Than A Day And His Replacement Is Already Getting Attacked

by Tim Pearce

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) acting administrator Andrew Wheeler has not finished a day as head of the agency before getting attacked for his stance on climate change and history as a coal lobbyist.

Former EPA head Scott Pruitt resigned Thursday and President Donald Trump installed Wheeler as the EPA’s acting administrator for the interim. Trump announced the news on Twitter.

The preliminary attacks have come chiefly from environmental organizations, liberal news outlets and journalists. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) tweeted a blog post written after the Senate confirmed Wheeler in April on why Americans should be “afraid of him.”

“Make no mistake: we’ll fight Wheeler’s pollution agenda with the same vigor as we did Pruitt’s,” NRDC tweeted.

Mary Ann Hitt, director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, celebrated Pruitt’s resignation while reminding Wheeler that the environmental group has “our eye on him.”

Journalists from liberal-leaning news outlets tweeted out other stories and warnings of Wheeler’s embrace of Trump’s deregulatory agenda.

Lawmakers spoke against Wheeler as well, tempering celebrations about Pruitt’s resignation with warnings about his replacement.

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