The Senate narrowly confirmed Andrew Wheeler as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday, February 28, 2019, by a vote of 52-47. No Democrats supported the nomination and one Republican also opposed. (The Hill). Interestingly, Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) voted against Wheeler after having been the only Democrat to support his earlier nomination as Deputy Administrator. Manchin explained that Wheeler has not demonstrated a desire or will to make progress in standards for drinking water and has worked to roll back certain clean air standards, both of ...
EPA enforcement actions as reflected by the amount of assessed civil penalties have dropped substantially during the first two years of the Trump Administration. (Washington Post, January 24). According to an analysis reported there, EPA's civil fines averaged more than $500 million a year when adjusted for inflation during the twenty years prior to the beginning of the Trump Administration. The total for 2018 was approximately 85% below that amount. This continues but expands a trend initiated in 2017 when penalty amounts apparently dropped by half (Reuters, 2/15/2018