Happy Wednesday! Welcome to Overnight Energy, The Hill's roundup of the latest energy and environment news. Please send tips and comments to Timothy Cama, tcama@thehill.com, and Miranda Green, mgreen@thehill.com. Follow us on Twitter: @Timothy_Cama, @mirandacgreen, @thehill. WHEELER SAYS HE DOESN'T WANT PRUITT'S JOB: EPA Deputy Administrator Andrew Wheeler says he's not interested in taking over for embattled administrator Scott Pruitt. Wheeler, who came to the EPA in April after a mostly party-line confirmation vote, would become the acting administrator if Pruitt were to resign or if President Trump were to fire him for the numerous ethics and spending scandals that have come to light in recent months. While Trump's supporters and detractors have held up Wheeler as a capable replacement, Wheeler said he's not angling for the job and hasn't been preparing for a potential Pruitt departure. "I'm the deputy administrator, that's the position I signed up for, that's the position I wanted. I didn't want to be the administrator, still don't want to be the administrator," Wheeler said to The Hill from his office in the EPA's Washington headquarters, just down the hall from Pruitt's. "I'm here to help Administrator Pruitt with his agenda and President Trump's agenda for the agency. That's what my job is." Read more. GREENS ACCUSE BISHOP OF ABUSING POWER: A high-profile environmental group denied Wednesday that it is acting on behalf of a foreign government and accused a pair of GOP lawmakers of abusing their power in investigating the organization. House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) and Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) are investigating the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), saying that its advocacy against relocating a Marine Corps base in Japan might be on behalf of the local Okinawa government. Most of CBD's response Wednesday to Bishop and Westerman is explaining its mission and why it opposes the Marine Corps project -- to protect the Okinawa dugong, an endangered marine mammal. "The center's decision to help the dugong … [is] exclusively determined, controlled and directed by the center's board of directors and executive director. Neither its dugong campaign, nor any of its conservation work, is controlled in any matter by any other domestic or foreign interest," Kieran Suckling, CBD's president, wrote to the committee. "If Reps. Bishop and Westerman are truly confused about the center's motivation and control, it is perhaps because they abuse their positions of power so regularly, and are so deeply influenced by powerful corporate donors, that they are unable to conceive of people being motivated by empathy, public interest and respect for the rule of law and democracy," Suckling continued. Read more. ON TAP THURSDAY: The World Gas Conference will continue. Big-name speakers include Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Energy Secretary Rick Perry. |
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