Editorial: The EPA’s retaliatory campaign against California deserves further scrutiny

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist known mainly for his determination to dismantle the regulations under his purview, has become uncharacteristically concerned about the cleanliness of air and water in a single state. In one week at the end of September, Wheeler both threatened California’s highway funding over air pollution paperwork deficiencies and warned of repercussions for water pollution that he blamed partly on homelessness in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Now a host of former EPA officials are calling out this anomaly for what it is: a brazen abuse of federal power for political purposes.

“Mr. Wheeler’s actions cannot be treated as legitimate uses of EPA’s authority taken for the purpose of advancing environmental protection, especially considering the current administration’s record,” says a letter signed by nearly 600 former EPA officials to the chairman and ranking Republican member of the House oversight committee. The EPA “has not shown much enthusiasm for enforcing environmental laws since President Trump took office. ... The agency instead has proposed to shrink the number of wetlands and streams protected by the Clean Water Act ... and relax toxic discharge limits for coal-fired power plants that are the largest industrial source of such pollutants.”

The former officials want the committee to “investigate whether EPA Administrator Wheeler’s recent actions in California were intended as retaliation for the state’s failure to support President Trump’s political agenda.” Four Democratic lawmakers from California — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Jackie Speier and Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris — have also asked the EPA’s inspector general to investigate the matter.

Wheeler’s threat to the state’s transportation funding came amid a standoff over the federal government’s efforts to reverse vehicle mileage standards developed by the Obama administration in cooperation with California officials. Paradoxically, his complaints about the state’s air quality also came shortly after the administration moved to revoke California’s long-standing authority to set stricter emissions standards. Trump’s Justice Department has also threatened antitrust action against automakers who reached a deal with California regulators to abide by stricter fuel efficiency standards, raising difficult questions about the rationale for the administration’s rollback.

Wheeler’s letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom alleging water quality violations, which came two days later, echoed the president’s diatribe about the public health dangers of homelessness during a brief fund-raising trip here. The nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project, which organized the letter from former EPA officials, wrote Wheeler a separate letter citing hundreds of serious water quality violations nationwide, noting half a dozen states with more sewage and industrial plants in “significant noncompliance” than California. “We ask that you give equally close scrutiny to Clean Water Act violations at large municipal or industrial wastewater treatment plants in other states,” the letter says.

The timing, tenor, and singularity of Wheeler’s campaign against the state make it impossible to trust his motives or intentions. As the former officials put it to lawmakers, “(The) EPA’s credibility depends on its commitment to use its authority to protect public health and our environment in an objective, even-handed manner rather than as a blunt instrument of political power.” California has no shortage of environmental and other problems that deserve state and federal attention, but the EPA administrator’s irregular and retaliatory threats of enforcement warrant serious scrutiny.

This commentary is from The Chronicle’s editorial board. We invite you to express your views in a letter to the editor. Please submit your letter via our online form: SFChronicle.com/letters.