WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, in a hearing about the Administration’s rollback of the clean car standards, EPA Assistant Administrator of the Office of Air and Radiation Bill Wehrum four times refused to answer Representative McNerney’s yes or no questions on whether he believes in climate science and whether it poses a danger to human health, despite rollbacks to the Clean Power Plan and the clean car standards.

At a congressional hearing in January of this year Wehrum admitted there’s a lot he still doesn’t understand about climate change.

Wehrum is a former lobbyist for coal, oil, gas, and chemical companies who has said that the Clean Air Act shouldn't apply to the carbon pollution that contributes to the climate crisis. Last week the Huffington Post reported that Wehrum gave a presentation at a fringe climate denier event. Late last year the Huffington Post also reported that Wehrum was visiting with Hunton Andrews Kurth, the fossil fuel lobbying firm that previously employed him, just one month after starting at EPA. The emails between Wehrum and Hunton Andrews Kurth reveal that Hunton lawyers were seeking inside information and looking to influence Wehrum’s decisions.

In response, Sierra Club Legislative Director Melinda Pierce released the following statement:

“Three things are certain: death, taxes, and the Trump administration refusing to answer basic questions about climate science. From rolling back the Clean Power Plan to undoing the clean car standards, this Administration is rooted in deception and corruption all in the name of boosting corporate polluter profits. Bill Wehrum, like Andrew Wheeler, has no interest in fulfilling his current duties to protect the health and safety of American families, only the interests of his previous fossil fuel employers.”