President Donald Trump’s choice to lead EPA’s air office acknowledged Wednesday that climate change is real. As the toll of rising temperatures becomes increasingly apparent, however, Aaron Szabo would not commit to confronting them should he win Senate confirmation.
“My understanding is that there is some heat trapping that occurs from greenhouse gases,” Szabo told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee during his confirmation hearing.
Pressed by ranking member Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) about whether more needs to be done to reduce emissions, Szabo responded somewhat cryptically: “I believe that we need to be adapting to all changes, including those to the climate.”
Szabo hewed to the same line when later asked by Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) whether he also acknowledged that more extreme weather events tied to climate change are leading to higher homeowner insurance premiums and other economic hardships.
Before agreeing that there are “impacts,” Szabo said that he was “fully supportive of Americans and people adapting to any changes in the climate that may occur.”
The message from Szabo, however carefully worded, was clear: While climate change was real, his job would not be fighting it.
Sharing the witness table with Szabo was David Fotouhi, nominated to become EPA’s deputy administrator.
In response to questions from Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Szabo and Fotouhi both highlighted the role of China in driving up greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. While China is the largest overall source of those releases, the United States — despite headway in cutting its own emissions — ranks higher on a per-capita basis.
“I think to the extent there needs to be work to be done to address that issue, it needs to be done both domestically and globally,” Fotouhi said. Unmentioned by either the witnesses or Cramer was Trump‘s decision to again pull the U.S. out of the Paris international climate agreement.
Their nominations are advancing, moreover, as EPA’s workforce has been shaken both by dismissals of probationary employees and agency Administrator Lee Zeldin’s vow to slash spending by at least 65 percent. Zeldin, however, has not yet explained what that would mean in practice.
Asked by Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) whether he thought the air office was overstaffed or understaffed, Szabo punted. “I believe that both the politicals and civil servants have been doing a fantastic job implementing their obligations under the Clean Air Act.”
Both lawyers, Fotouhi and Szabo are up for two of EPA’s most powerful posts.
The deputy administrator typically oversees day-to-day management across the agency. The Office of Air and Radiation has responsibility for climate and air pollution regulations that affect virtually every American and touch vast swaths of the economy.
If confirmed, both are poised to play lead roles in pursuing Trump’s deregulatory regime, potentially including the rollback of the 2009 endangerment finding that undergirds EPA’s authority to cut emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases.
‘Is this really what we want?’
EPW Chair Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) has not announced a date for a vote on their nominations. The unusual joint hearing, which ran less than two hours, suggested that both Szabo and Fotouhi are expected to readily win approval from the majority-Republican Senate. Both have spent years representing clients in the oil and gas, chemical, and manufacturing sectors.
“Is this really what we want for the EPA?” Whitehouse asked in his opening statement. “Is this really how we protect clean air and clean water?”
But Capito noted that Szabo spent more than 10 years as a career federal employee at agencies like the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, while Fotouhi’s accomplishments as an attorney have been recognized by “multiple national law publications.”
Capito also touted their work for industry as a plus. Particularly for senior EPA leaders, she said, it is important “to understand how the agency’s use of statutory authority and enforcement tools affect states and regulated entities.”
Fotouhi is currently a partner with the firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, where his client list in recent years has included major polluters like Chevron and Vistra, along with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other national business lobbies, according to a financial disclosure report.
Before joining EPA in January as senior adviser to the administrator, Szabo was a registered lobbyist with clients that over time ranged from the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers to Duke Energy.
At Wednesday’s hearing, however, both highlighted serious medical conditions in underscoring the personal importance of EPA’s mission to them. Fotouhi described himself as a cancer survivor, while Szabo said he has cystic fibrosis, a congenital respiratory ailment that can be fatal.
“As someone with a lung disease,” Szabo said he found it “deeply concerning” that approximately 140 million people live in areas that are flunking EPA’s ambient air quality standards for ozone and other common pollutants.
“We should prioritize helping these areas achieve compliance and improve air quality,” Szabo said.
This story also appears in Climatewire.
