BY DINO GRANDONI with Paulina Firozi
Writing in the Washington Post’s Power Post

Andrew Wheeler inched closer Wednesday to becoming the official administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

But if or when the acting director is confirmed by the Senate (and it’s almost guaranteed to be “when”), he will do so with less support than he had last year when he was confirmed as the EPA’s No. 2 official.

Susan Collins, the moderate Republican from Maine, said Wednesday that she will not vote to confirm Wheeler to the position atop the agency. Neither will Joe Manchin III, the centrist Democrat from coal-producing West Virginia, after voting Wednesday against advancing Wheeler’s nomination in the Senate.

Both senators had supported Wheeler when he was confirmed to be the EPA’s deputy administrator, but said they have found his record at the agency too lacking to support him again.

While Wheeler remains popular with the vast majority of elected Republicans, and reviled among most Democrats, these two defections are the latest sign the EPA’s rollback of environmental rules is wearing thin among those in the middle of the political spectrum.

Collins praised Wheeler for acting ethically at the agency and understanding its mission “unlike Scott Pruitt,” the former EPA chief who became mired in investigations of his spending and managing conduct. But she faulted Wheeler for halting efforts by President Barack Obama’s administration to curb greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles and power plants.

“While Mr. Wheeler is certainly qualified for this position, I have too many concerns with the actions he has taken during his tenure as Acting Administrator to be able to support his promotion,” she said in a statement.

Manchin, meanwhile, said Wheeler was not making “meaningful progress” on clean water standards, citing the agency’s failure to limit the amount of certain pollutants — called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS — going into the water of some industrial towns in his and other states. The EPA announced this month it plans to place legal limits on PFAS concentrations but has not done so.

“I believe immediate action must be taken, and these efforts lack a sense of urgency,” he said.

Both senators cited the EPA’s attempt to undo rules designed to limit emissions of mercury, which can damage the brains of infants and young children. As Manchin noted, “the industry doesn’t even support” that rollback.

But those no votes probably aren’t enough to stop Wheeler from being confirmed. The rest of the Republicans in the Senate appear to support President Trump’s EPA pick, virtually guaranteeing his confirmation by the GOP-controlled chamber. On Wednesday, the Senate advanced his nomination to lead the agency in a 52-to-46 vote along party lines. (Collins voted yes on that procedural vote while vowing to vote no on Wheeler’s final confirmation.)

Collins is one a handful of Senate Republicans up for reelection in 2020 who has shown a willingness to buck Trump at times on environmental issues. Last year, for example, Thom Tillis of North Carolina helped sink the nomination of Michael Dourson to be the EPA’s top chemical safety official over concerns about his “body of work” for chemical companies.

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