| Dear Katy, At his confirmation hearing last week, Andrew Wheeler tried to convince senators that he is a more moderate, ethical leader for the EPA than his predecessor Scott Pruitt. They should not be fooled. Wheeler is a former coal lobbyist who rejects climate science and tweets racist and extremist right-wing content. In his short time as acting EPA administrator, he reversed key environmental protections with lethal efficiency. He is anything but moderate. Putting a racist coal lobbyist in charge of environment protection is completely unacceptable, and we need to make sure no senators are fooled by his act. Tell the Senate: Block and resist the confirmation of coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler as EPA administrator. Click here to sign the petition. Far from his carefully cultivated image as the "grown up" version of Scott Pruitt, Wheeler lives in the fact-free, conspiracy-filled world of the extreme far right. His social media record is telling – and disturbing. In 2013, Wheeler "liked" a racist Facebook post dehumanizing Pres. and First Lady Obama.1 After Twitter banned alt-right troll Milo Yiannopoulos for encouraging fans to harass actress Leslie Jones, Wheeler shared an Infowars video defending him.2 He tweeted links promoting climate change denial in 2009, 2011 and 2015.3 Just this year, he retweeted a Pizzagate conspiracy theorist.4 As the acting EPA administrator, Wheeler has been just as destructive as Pruitt. He is working to dismantle the Clean Power Plan, roll back fuel efficiency standards and put more brain damaging mercury in the environment.5 He put the head of the Office of Children's Health Protection on leave without cause and removed mentions of climate change from the EPA's website.6 Like Pruitt, Wheeler has shown that partisanship and career ambition are more important to him than avoiding ethical conflicts of interest. When Trump first nominated Wheeler to be deputy EPA administrator, Wheeler smoothed his path by hosting fundraisers for Republican senators on the committee responsible for advancing his nomination.7 Even with a Republican-controlled Senate, public pressure has forced Trump to withdraw some of his most controversial nominees.8 Other Trump officials resigned after news broke about their own past racist statements.9 With enough pressure on the Senate, we can block Wheeler's confirmation. Tell the Senate: Block and resist the confirmation of coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler as EPA administrator. Click the link below to sign the petition: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/reject-wheeler-epa-2?t=7&akid=31304%2E12967895%2ERTqmsv Thanks for fighting back, Brandy Doyle, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets Add your name: References: - Alexander C. Kaufman, "EPA Chief Andrew Wheeler Engaged With Racist, Conspiratorial Posts On Social Media," HuffPost, Oct. 9, 2018.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- Lisa Hymas, "What you need to know about EPA nominee Andrew Wheeler and the media," Media Matters for America, Nov. 19, 2018.
- Olivia Rosane, "Trump Wants Coal-Friendly Wheeler to Run the EPA Permanently," EcoWatch, Nov. 19, 2018.
- Ibid.
- Lee Fang and Nick Surgey, "Coal Lobbyist Hosted Fundraisers For Senators Evaluating His Nomination For Top EPA Post," The Intercept, Feb. 7, 2018.
- Jennifer Hansler, "Almost a dozen Trump nominees have withdrawn from consideration for administration jobs," CNN, Oct. 17, 2017.
- Kaufman, "EPA Chief Andrew Wheeler Engaged With Racist, Conspiratorial Posts On Social Media."
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