Wehrum's Confirmation Likely To Expedite Pruitt's EPA Air Policy Overhaul

摘要

The Senate's 49-47 vote to confirm William Wehrum to head EPA's Office of Air & Radiation (OAR) is likely to boost agency Administrator Scott Pruitt in his plan to overhaul Clean Air Act policies, which includes rollbacks of climate and other air rules, and changes to new source review (NSR) permitting to ease industry burdens. Although Democrats failed to prevent the upper chamber from confirming Wehrum Nov. 9 - an industry lawyer and previously the George W. Bush EPA's acting OAR chief - they are vowing to continue attacking his policies while he serves at the agency. Their goal is to make Wehrum and other controversial nominees for top EPA and other environmental positions political liabilities for Republicans who support them.