The head of the Environmental Protection Agency failed to disclose lobbying work he did for a company that is regulated by the agency, according to a federal lawmaker.
When EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler joined the agency in 2017, he neglected to mention on required financial disclosure forms that he had just left a two-year gig at Darling Ingredients, which has a hand in making fuel and fertilizers regulated by the EPA.
“These documents indicate that you may have improperly omitted Darling from your financial disclosure, and they raise concerns that you may have failed to identify other clients who paid for your services as a lobbyist during the period covered by your disclosure report,” House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings wrote in a Tuesday letter to Wheeler.
The omission came to light when his former lobbying firm, Faegre Baker Daniels Consulting, filed disclosure reports that showed the income.
Wheeler’s former work on behalf of EPA-regulated companies — including coal outfits — has come under scrutiny by Democrats.
At a town hall meeting Monday, presidential hopeful Sen. Elizabeth Warren criticized the EPA chief for his previous work.
“No coal lobbyists for head of EPA,” Warren said at the event.
The scrutiny comes less than a year after former EPA head Scott Pruitt resigned in disgrace from the agency in July amid a cloud of ethics controversies.
He was probed by the House and the Senate for his profligate spending at the EPA, which included lavish first-class air travel, a $43,000 soundproof booth for making private phone calls from his office, and $1,560 on a dozen custom fountain pens.