WASHINGTON _ Andrew Wheeler, President Donald Trump's nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency, told a Senate panel Wednesday that he was committed to reaching a deal with California officials to resolve the dispute over relaxing fuel economy standards.
He also defended his resistance to making climate change a top priority and echoed Trump's claim that the California wildfires were mostly a result of poor forest management, rather than drought or climate change.
At his confirmation hearing to become the permanent EPA administrator, Wheeler, a former coal industry lobbyist, was asked about the EPA's proposal to relax Obama-era fuel economy standards that were designed to get the nation's cars and trucks to average more than 50 miles per gallon by 2025. The administration plan would freeze mileage targets in 2020 for six years and move to end California's power to set its own, tougher standards. Thirteen other states follow California's more stringent rules.
Automakers, who once backed the plan to relax the standard, now worry the dispute will become tied up in courts for years, or result in different standards in different states.
Sen. Thomas R. Carper, D-Del., said he had met repeatedly with the largest automakers, which want a quick resolution.
"They don't want to wind up in a lawsuit with California," Carper said. "Why are you, why is EPA, why is California, these other 13 states, why are we unable to come to a deal that every auto company wants?"
Wheeler said he had met several times with California Air Resources Board Chairwoman Mary Nichols.
"Nobody wants a 50-state deal more than I do," he said.
Wheeler began his remarks to the Senate by emphasizing his efforts to roll back environmental regulations, a path he believes will spur economic growth.
Air pollution in the U.S. has fallen, he said in a prepared statement. The country's drinking water ranks among the best in the world, he said.
"At the same time, we are advancing the president's regulatory reform agenda," he said.
Wheeler said that, under Trump, the EPA has initiated 33 "major deregulatory actions."
These include proposals to remove federal protections from many streams and wetlands and roll back rules governing mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants.
"Through our deregulatory actions, the Trump administration has proven that burdensome federal regulations are not necessary to drive environmental progress," Wheeler told the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. "Certainty, and the innovation that thrives in a climate of certainty, are key to progress," he said.
The acting administrator, who has served as head of the EPA since July, did not mention climate change in his opening remarks _ a move in keeping with the view that the EPA plays only a small role in averting a looming climate crisis.
Pressed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to explain his position on climate change, Wheeler did not go so far as to deny the established science that humans are causing global warming. Nor, when asked, did he agree with Trump's insistence that climate change is a hoax.
"I have not used the word hoax myself," he said.
But he showed no sense of urgency to tackle the issue.
"I would not call it the greatest crisis, no sir," he said to Sanders. "I would call it a global issue that needs to be addressed globally."
Referring to a recent study from 13 federal agencies that found global warming will cause more severe droughts and wildfires, Sanders asked Wheeler whether he agreed that worsening natural disasters are related to climate change.
"There's probably some relation to climate change," Wheeler said. "I think the biggest issue with the wildfires has been forest management."
Wheeler's comments were interrupted by protesters from environmental advocacy groups, who led a chant outside the hearing room: "Shut down Wheeler, not the EPA!"
