During remarks on the Senate floor Monday, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) spoke about the nomination of David Fotouhi to serve as Deputy EPA Administrator.
00:00I will say that I am here today because we are about to go to the motion to invoke cloture on the nomination of David Fatoui to serve as the Deputy Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
00:20And I very much hope that colleagues will oppose his nomination because he is essentially 100% on the side of the polluters and not interested in protecting the public health or the public safety or the public's well-being.
00:42If you think about EPA, at its most basic, its mission is to protect clean air and clean water and a safe climate.
00:54But in this guy's two jobs since law school, as a corporate lawyer and as acting general counsel of the EPA during the first Trump administration,
01:06Mr. Fatoui has served the interests of polluting industries that do everything in their power to avoid, weaken or kill the rules that protect our clean air, our clean water and our safe climate.
01:24He has consistently been on the wrong side.
01:27As a partner at a prominent law firm, Mr. Fatoui defended a raft of big polluting interests, including mega polluters Chevron and Sunoco.
01:38And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
01:40Other polluter clients included Aethon Energy, Cibolo Energy Partners, Energy Transfer Partners, Matador Resources Company and Profrac Holdings.
01:52What did he help them do?
01:55Well, he defended one company for dumping tens of thousands of tons of PFAS into drinking water.
02:05He defended the tire manufacturers for poisoning salmon with their rubber additives.
02:16He defended an automobile company against claims of greenwashing concerning their so-called clean diesel cars.
02:28He defended another for failing to obtain proper permits resulting in illegal emissions of sulfur dioxide.
02:38And he represented a major defense contractor seeking to shift responsibility onto the United States for environmental remediation necessitated by the company's release of hazardous waste.
02:54The list goes on.
02:56As counsel and then acting general counsel at EPA during the first Trump administration, Mr. Fatoui worked hard to repeal environmental regulations meant to protect human health and the environment.
03:12By doing two primary things.
03:14First, he developed the legal justifications for these attacks.
03:19And second, when they were challenged in court, he orchestrated the strategy to defend against those legal challenges.
03:28Well, which regulations were involved?
03:32Actually, a lot of them.
03:34Rules covering CO2 emission standards for light-duty vehicles.
03:40Greenhouse gas emissions from aircraft.
03:43Methane emissions from the oil and gas industry.
03:47Lead and copper in drinking water.
03:50State water quality certification process.
03:54And the management of coal combustion residuals.
04:00In other words, lots and lots of rules meant to make our air, water, and climate cleaner and safer became the targets of this individual.
04:15Now, Mr. Fatoui is nominated to be second in command as the agency implements the poisonous agenda of President Trump's fossil fuel donors.
04:28Chief on those polluting donors wish list is the recession of EPA's endangerment finding.
04:37A 2009 science-based determination that greenhouse gases are harmful to human health and the environment.
04:50Yeah, that was 2009.
04:54And when that rule was adopted, it had been settled scientific fact for decades that greenhouse gases harm public health and the environment.
05:07Now, here we are, 16 years later, where the evidence has only gotten stronger.
05:14And the looming economic dangers have only gotten more evident.
05:20And yet he wants to undo that rule.
05:24The only people who benefit from repealing the endangerment finding, the only people, are the planet's biggest polluters, who just happen to be among Trump and the Republican Party's biggest donors.
05:39Mr. Fatoui has served those polluters' interests for years.
05:45He is their boy.
05:48Clearly, like everyone, polluters have a right to counsel.
05:54But it remains difficult for me to understand how someone who has made a career representing the very industries that destroy our environment
06:07and defending their practices that did that damage now has any business being entrusted to protect us.
06:18He will obviously serve their interests and not the public interest.
06:25Always has.
06:26Always will.
06:29Even before Mr. Fatoui's nomination, the corruption of EPA by Trump's polluting fossil fuel donors is already underway.
06:42Where even to begin?
06:45Administrator Zeldin continues his assault on clean air and clean water and what he now contemptuously calls the climate religion.
06:58Contrary to his repeated and obviously false and empty promises when he came before us in committee.
07:09The list of congressionally authorized and appropriated funding that EPA continues illegally to hold hostage is too long to list here today.
07:23Obviously, the biggest target is the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which drives Administrator Zeldin and his enablers at DOJ crazy.
07:34And it drives them to conduct that merits both legal and professional liability.
07:46I've talked about this frequently as it relates to the repeated misconduct of the unconfirmably corrupt Ed Martin over at DOJ who was part of this scheme.
08:01Beyond illegally blocking grants, this EPA has put the Office of Research and Development responsible for conducting EPA scientific research on the chopping block.
08:18With rifts, reductions in force, and reorganizations imminent.
08:25Because after all, who wants science where big polluting donors' interests are involved?
08:35Then we've got the coming onslaught of deregulatory actions which will make cars dirtier and less fuel efficient and more expensive for their owners to run so that Trump's big donors in the oil industry can sell more gasoline.
08:53Deregulatory actions which will let power plants and oil and gas facilities spew more carbon dioxide and methane so Trump's fossil fuel political donors can sell more oil and gas.
09:12EPA is even attempting to shut down the program that keeps track of how much carbon pollution industrial facilities emit.
09:25They don't even want to keep score any longer.
09:29EVA.
09:30Here, no evil, see no evil.
09:32Here, no evil.
09:33See, no evil.
09:34See, no evil.
09:35This is Administrator Zeldin's motto over at the EPA.
09:39The corruption in this administration is endless.
09:45And the corruption related to the fossil fuel industry is particularly evil and damaging.
09:53And the service of David Fatui in the cause of the polluters who fund Trump and the Republican Party is, in my view, completely disqualifying.
10:07On the other hand, for the polluters, it's the reason they like him.
10:12I will vote no on his nomination, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.
10:19I thank the presiding officer, and I yield the floor.
