The Senate on Thursday narrowly confirmed President Trump’s pick to head the EPA’s office of air and radiation, widely considered the second most important post at the agency.
On a party-line vote of 49 to 47, the chamber approved Bill Wehrum to lead the office. The nomination of Mr. Wehrum, a former energy industry attorney who worked in the EPA during the George W. Bush administration, was deeply opposed by Democrats and environmental groups who said his ties to the energy sector represent massive conflicts of interest.
In his new position, Mr. Wehrum will directly oversee agency efforts to undo many Obama-era regulations, including the Clean Power Plan, a set of emissions limits on coal-fired power plants that the Trump EPA plans to scrap.
“The EPA’s air office has been responsible for creating the agency’s most punishing regulations,” Sen. John Barrasso, Wyoming Republican and chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works committee, said after the vote. “Bill Wehrum’s three decades of environmental policy experience will be enormously helpful as he works to cut red tape, protect America’s air, and allow our economy to grow.”
Green groups say Mr. Wehrum surely will favor energy-industry growth over clean air, making him a deeply unsettling choice.
“It’s genuinely hard to fathom someone less suited to lead clean air efforts at the EPA than Bill Wehrum,” said Andrea Delgado, legislative director for healthy communities at the environmental group Earthjustice. “Like other Trump nominees, he has made a career leading efforts to weaken standards that protect us from mercury, silica, lead, and smog at the expense of the health and safety of children, workers, and communities. While he works overtime to unwind crucial health safeguards that keep our air clean, we will be watching his every move and stand ready to hold him accountable if he oversteps his authorities.”
Read more at Washington Examiner
Screw the Greens its about time we had someone who uses common sense and is not a card carrying member of Greenpeace,Sierra Club or NRDC
Great news !!
I am a resident of Delaware, as is Bill Wehrum.
As soon as I read the news of his confirmation, I telephoned him at the office of his legal firm in Washington D.C.. He actually answered his own phone !!
I also sent him an e-mail congratulating him and explaining as briefly as I could about Natural Fission (Herndon’s GeoReactor) as the source of all Ice Ages & warm Interglacials, Anthopogenic Global Warming is b.s., etc, etc.
We only spoke briefly as he had an incoming call. He encouraged me to reach out to him at any time. I hope he calls back.
His education:
JD, Widener University School of Law, 1993
BS, Chemical Engineering, Purdue University, 1986
Somebody who knows law AND a Chemical Engineer !!
Go Boilermakers !!!
Hallelujah!!
The hypocrisy of the liberals continues to astound me. It isn’t okay to have Bill Wehrum in charge of Office Of Air And Radiation, but it was perfectly okay for Obama to staff the EPA heavily with people from environmentalist extreme groups.