RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Andrew Wheeler will serve as a senior adviser to Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration after Senate Democrats rejected the former U.S. EPA administrator's appointment to a Cabinet role.
Wheeler had been nominated to oversee environmental and other policy issues as secretary of natural and historic resources.
The governor's office says the deputy secretary will now serve as acting secretary while Wheeler takes on the advisory role.
Wheeler led the EPA in the latter years of the Trump administration.
His nomination was defeated by Senate Democrats as he faced criticism from environmental groups and some ex-EPA employees for a tenure criticized as overly deferential to corporate interests.
