The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request did not provide any scientific evidence to back Administrator https://thehill.com/people/andrew-wheelerr's claims that the consequences of climate change were still “50 to 75 years out.”
Wheeler’s comments came in an
interview with CBS in March, when he told the network's Major Garrett that he would be focused on pressing issues like access to clean water since “most of the threats from climate change are 50 to 75 years out.”
The controversial comments spurred a FOIA
request from the environmental group Sierra Club and then in October a
lawsuit, forcing the EPA to turn over records Wheeler relied on in making that statement, as well as any research from the EPA that supported his claim.
Wheeler’s interview preparation, obtained by the Sierra Club and shared with The Hill, never mentions the words climate change nor does it offer any insight into what scientific evidence might back his claim.
“Trump’s EPA just admitted what everyone already knew: Andrew Wheeler invented these false claims out of thin air as part of his ongoing work to protect the fossil fuel industry from accountability for driving and exacerbating the climate crisis,” Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune said in a statement.