NRDC President: Senate Should Reject Four “Wildly Unfit” Trump Environmental Picks
WASHINGTON – Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt is poised to get four key reinforcements in his mission to eviscerate commonsense environment and public health safeguards Americans depend on.
The Natural Resources Defense Council urges the Senate to block each of them.
President Trump has nominated fossil fuel apologist and climate change denier Kathleen Hartnett White to head the White House Council on Environmental Quality, charged with overseeing responsible stewardship across the federal government.
Trump also named career chemical industry lobbyist Michael Dourson to head up oversight of toxic chemicals regulation at EPA; William Wehrum, whose work at EPA resulted in dozens of Clean Air Act violations during the George W. Bush administration, to preside over EPA’s enforcement of rules meant to keep industrial air pollution in check; and coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler to serve as Pruitt’s deputy, charged with overseeing day to day operations at EPA.
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will consider two of the EPA nominees - Dourson and Wehrum – in a business meeting scheduled for Wednesday morning October 18.
Rhea Suh, president of NRDC, made the following statement:
“These nominees are wildly unfit for positions that will directly impact the quality of our air, water, climate and health for years and even decades to come. The Senate should roundly reject all four abysmal nominees. And then it should insist that the White House appoint qualified candidates who will advance the solemn mission to protect Americans’ health and our environment, not put both at risk for the sake of polluter profits.”
Suh makes her case here: https://medium.com/natural-resources-defense-council/the-senate-must-reject-these-four-nominees-c1d1ca4a744d
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The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Since 1970, our lawyers, scientists, and other environmental specialists have worked to protect the world's natural resources, public health, and the environment. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Bozeman, MT, and Beijing. Visit us at www.nrdc.org and follow us on Twitter @NRDC.