EPA Employees Are Livid Over Youngkin’s Pick for Virginia’s Top Climate Post

Under Trump, Andrew Wheeler “destroyed or weakened dozens of environmental safeguards.”

Andrew Wheeler testifies before a House subcommittee in April 2019.Patrick Semansky/AP

This story was originally published by HuffPost and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

Federal employees at the Environmental Protection Agency are fighting to keep Andrew Wheeler, Donald Trump’s controversial second head of the EPA and a former coal lobbyist, from becoming Virginia’s top environmental official.

Earlier this month, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) announced Wheeler as his pick to serve as secretary of natural resources. The choice outraged state Democrats and environmental groups, who described Wheeler as “the absolute worst pick” for the post.

​​AFGE Council 238, a union that represents more than 7,500 EPA employees nationwide, has joined the effort to block Wheeler’s nomination. In a letter to Virginia state senators on Thursday, Marie Owens Powell, the union’s president and a longtime EPA employee, wrote that Wheeler “destroyed or weakened dozens of environmental safeguards at EPA, with the sole intention of bolstering polluting industries’ profit margins.”

They warned that Virginia could expect the same of him.

“There are few who understand more acutely the threat Mr. Wheeler poses to [the Virginia Department of Natural and Historic Resources] and the natural environment that Virginians cherish than those of us who saw first-hand the impact of Mr. Wheeler’s misguided leadership at the EPA,” the letter reads.

Public backlash to Youngkin’s nominee sets the stage for what is likely to be a contentious confirmation process. Democrats maintain a 21-19 majority in Virginia’s Senate. As The Hill reported, two key moderate Democrats have signaled that they are unlikely to support Wheeler for the job.

Wheeler served as the EPA’s deputy administrator before taking over for his scandal-plagued predecessor, Scott Pruitt, in 2019. Wheeler helped spearhead the Trump administration’s industry-friendly agenda, dismantling numerous pollution rules and other clean air and water safeguards to the benefit of the extractive industries that he once represented as a lobbyist. Along the way, he repeatedly downplayed the threat of global climate change and sidelined scientific advisory committees.

Owens Powell, who has been with the EPA for nearly three decades and works as an underground storage tank inspector in its Philadelphia office, said the work environment at the federal agency during Wheeler’s tenure was “extremely hostile.”

“The simple rejection of scientific principles was just so demoralizing to our staff,” she said.

During Wheeler’s tenure, the EPA scrubbed climate change language from the agency’s website. And Wheeler questioned the results of a sobering federal climate assessment, saying some of its findings were “based on the worst-case scenario.”

Owens Powell was surprised that Youngkin tapped Wheeler for the job given what she felt was a clear and well-documented record at the EPA. If he’s confirmed, she fears he will not only cause similar damage in Virginia, but negatively impact the EPA’s ability to collaborate with the state agency, ultimately making it more difficult to confront climate change and other environmental threats.

“I couldn’t imagine that anyone would have thought he would be a good idea for this position,” she told HuffPost by phone. “It’s ​​AFGE Council 238’s sincere hope that someone in a position of authority will stand up for sound science and the enforcement of corresponding environmental laws and reject this nomination.”

Youngkin’s office did not respond to specific questions Thursday, instead referring HuffPost to an interview the governor did with WTVR-TV in Richmond last week in which he called Wheeler “the most qualified person for this job.”

A former private equity executive, Youngkin is the first Republican governor of Virginia since 2009. One of his first actions after being sworn in Jan. 15 was to sign an executive order aimed at withdrawing Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a program that several states joined to slash greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector.

It’s a move that Wheeler, who defended Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the historic Paris climate agreement, would no doubt approve of, and one Owens Powell suspects Wheeler’s fingerprints are on. Wheeler was a member of Youngkin’s transition team.

The EPA union’s letter comes less than a week after more than 150 former EPA staffers urged Virginia state lawmakers to vote down Wheeler’s nomination. In their own letter, the group said the Trump official “sidelined science” at the EPA and “pursued an extremist approach, methodically weakening EPA’s ability to protect public health and the environment, instead favoring polluters.”

Sharon Bethune is a Virginia resident, longtime former EPA employee and past vice president for civil rights at AFGE Local 3331. She shares her former colleagues’ concerns. She told HuffPost that during Trump’s term, morale at the EPA was shot, and the “destruction” Wheeler caused factored into her decision to retire in 2019 after nearly four decades at the agency.

“It’s mind-boggling how I have to see him again, at my back door this time,” Bethune said. “Right here at my back door.”

“I’m thinking about the fact that my grandchildren may not be able to benefit from some of the things I benefit from, all because we put the wrong man in office.”

More Mother Jones reporting on Climate Desk

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate