Press Releases

Rep. Don Beyer, a vocal critic of the EPA during President Trump’s tenure, today got his first chance to question an EPA Administrator in the Trump era. He drew direct connections Administrator Wheeler’s leadership at the EPA and the list of requests which coal baron Robert Murray presented to Trump Administration officials shortly after Trump took office.

Beyer framed the overview as a “report card” on the Murray action plan [via NYT] for Wheeler and Trump’s EPA [VIDEO]:

BEYER: During your confirmation hearing, Senator Whitehouse asked you about the “action plan” developed by your former client, the coal baron Robert Murray.

That plan, commonly known as the “Murray Memo,” presented a series of asks from Murray’s fossil fuel company, one of Donald Trump’s largest donors, [of] asks to the Trump Administration, asks essentially [for] a series of actions to gut environmental protections and climate action in this country.

So I offer, with great dismay, what we might call the Trump Administration’s report card for delivering what your former client Mr. Murray asked you and the EPA to do.

-              Murray asked you to cut the EPA workforce in half, but you supported the Trump budget which only cut it by a third, so let’s call that an “incomplete.”

-              He asked you to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accords and you did it right away. A+.

-              He asked you to eliminate the Clean Power Plan. You’ve almost finished that so we’ll call that a B+.

-              He asked you to eliminate the Maximum Achievable Control Technology standards which regulate toxic pollution. You just proposed a big loophole to allow increases in that pollution, so that’s a B.

-              Murray wanted you to end the cross-state air pollution rule, and you didn’t do that yet. But you weakened enforcement so maybe just a C.

-              And we are still unclear on is his request that you withdraw the endangerment finding for greenhouse gases, which is the legal basis for regulations to fight climate change. You haven’t done this yet, but your other former boss Senator Inhofe said he thinks you will “eventually.”

So did you take these directives right from Mr. Murray, and do you plan to complete the rest of Mr. Murray’s tasks?

Wheeler: I appreciate you keeping score. As I’ve said many times, I’ve never read the Murray action plan. I didn’t have it, and I didn’t write it, and I didn’t read it. So this recitation of the items in there is the first I’ve heard of many of those that were included, so no I am not following that plan…

Beyer also brought up his past oversight efforts related to Wheeler’s conflicts of interest which could potentially violate his ethics pledge, and pressed him on changes to the EPA’s FOIA processes which critics say have reduced transparency at the agency.

Representative Beyer was the first Member of Congress to issue a formal statement calling for Scott Pruitt’s resignation and led numerous oversight initiatives focused on Pruitt’s tenure at the EPA. Beyer led the first Congressional oversight effort taking issue with ethical lapses by Pruitt’s successor, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, and led Congressional opposition to the Trump EPA’s “Dirty Water” Rule.