When acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler appeared before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in early August, the energy and environment community was watching.

It was Wheeler’s first appearance since his predecessor, Scott Pruitt, resigned after months of ethical, spending and personnel scandals. Washington was eager to see how Wheeler would right the agency.

But when it came time for questions, Chairman John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican, led off asking not about the Pruitt scandals or pending rules, but about Washington state’s use of Clean Water Act powers to block a coal export terminal construction permit.

“We can’t allow states to block the export of American energy,” Barrasso said.

His question underscored the incongruity between the GOP push for “cooperative federalism,” which favors more independence by state governments in applying federal rules, and how willingly Republicans have turned that idea upside down when they don’t like a state’s decision. Cooperative federalism is at the heart of how the Trump administration claims to approach its deregulatory agenda.