drain the swamp?
Scott Pruitt's successor is reportedly the Mike Pence of the EPA
Three months after President Trump told now-former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt to "knock it off," he finally did, resigning on Thursday and leaving Andrew Wheeler to take his place.
Wheeler, the Environmental Protection Agency's deputy administrator, spent decades working in Washington as a coal lobbyist and EPA aide under former Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, reports Politico.
After lobbying for various fossil fuel corporations, he eagerly stepped back into the swamp after a six-month-long confirmation process, as Pruitt's second-in-command. "He's like Mike Pence is to Trump," a former colleague of Wheeler's said. "He's behind the scenes. He'll get a lot done and doesn't need to be in the news."
Other Capitol Hill staffers have praised his diligent adherence to proper procedure and ability to work with Congress. His aggressive stance on environmental regulations will lead to "methodical" and "rule-driven" rollbacks of policies, aides predict. Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune told Politico that Wheeler will "fit in well" at the top of Trump's EPA because of his efforts to "flout the findings of the scientific community" and fight environmental protections.
Wheeler, who doubts that humans are the primary cause of climate change, is set to take over as acting administrator of the EPA on Monday. Read more at Politico.