EPA's air pollution chief steps down after ethics probe raises new questions

[dixiegrrrrl]

In plain english, he LIED

The former utility lawyer who led much of President Donald Trump’s rollback of pollution regulations will leave the Environmental Protection Agency — a move that comes after he provided conflicting information to Congress about his connections to the industry, three sources knowledgeable about the matter told POLITICO.

EPA air pollution chief Bill Wehrum’s ties to his old law firm and especially the Utility Air Regulatory Group, an influential collection of coal-heavy utilities that lobbied against climate regulations, drew scrutiny from House Democrats, who launched an investigation in April. POLITICO reported in February that 25 power companies and six industry trade groups agreed to pay the firm a total of $8.2 million in 2017, the same year President Donald Trump tapped Wehrum to join the EPA.

Wehrum has said he represented only the group, not its member utilities, some of which he had met with in his role at EPA. But people with knowledge of the case said actions taken by his old law firm, Hunton Andrews Kurth, have led congressional investigators to believe that the utilities were also clients, in which case Wehrum may have violated his ethics agreement.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/26/epa-bill-wehrum-1556621

?itemid=8171986

[elleng]

1. he provided conflicting information to Congress about his connections to the industry.