--- title: EPA Chief Says Climate Change Is Not His Top Priority description: Andrew Wheeler also said the EPA will release plans soon to speed up states decision-making for energy infrastructure projects canonical: https://time.com/5569214/epa-chief-andrew-wheeler-climate-change/ author: Amy Gunia article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-04-12T06:50:36.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T23:17:11.471Z article:section: Politics og:title: EPA Chief Says Climate Change Is Not His Top Priority og:description: He said water, not climate change, is the number one challenge og:url: https://time.com/5569214/epa-chief-andrew-wheeler-climate-change/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt404d6b4fe6278cb4/698948207cdbac24eed5f553/andrew-wheeler-epa.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: andrew-wheeler-epa og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: EPA Chief Says Climate Change Is Not His Top Priority twitter:description: He said water, not climate change, is the number one challenge twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt404d6b4fe6278cb4/698948207cdbac24eed5f553/andrew-wheeler-epa.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # EPA Chief Says Climate Change Is Not His Top Priority by [Amy Gunia](https://time.com/author/amy-gunia/) ## Amy Gunia Gunia was a reporter for TIME based in Hong Kong. Apr 12, 2019 6:50 AM UTC  Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler testifies before the House Environment and Climate Change Subcommittee during a hearing on President Trump's budget request for Fiscal Year 2020 on April 9, 2019. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler testifies before the House Environment and Climate Change Subcommittee during a hearing on President Trump's budget request for Fiscal Year 2020 on April 9, 2019.Patrick Semansky—AP by [Amy Gunia](https://time.com/author/amy-gunia/) ## Amy Gunia Gunia was a reporter for TIME based in Hong Kong. Apr 12, 2019 6:50 AM UTC The head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defended big energy infrastructure projects and said Thursday that [climate change](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-epa-wheeler-interview/u-s-epa-chief-defends-big-energy-projects-says-climate-not-top-priority-idUSKCN1RN2Z9?il=0) is not his highest priority. Speaking to Reuters from his Washington D.C. office, agency chief [Andrew Wheeler](http://time.com/5498307/andrew-wheeler-coal-lobbyist-epa-head/), a former coal lobbyist, said that concerns about the impact of climate change were overblown under former President Barack Obama’s administration. Wheeler, unlike President Donald Trump’s first [EPA chief](http://time.com/5139589/scott-pruitt-climate-change-epa/), reiterated that he does not dismiss human-caused climate change, or contradict mainstream climate science, however. “I said before I took this job that I believe in climate change and man has an impact on climate change,” he told Reuters. But Wheeler did cast doubt on a study released this week by EPA scientists in the journal _Nature Climate Change_ which detailed the urgency of the issue and pressed for early adoption of mitigating strategies. “Just because our scientists publish something in a journal doesn’t mean that that’s agency policy or all the other scientists at the agency agree with that particular study,” he said. The measures proposed in the paper, he added, are not EPA policy. **Read More:** [_Here’s What the EPA’s Website Looks Like After a Year of Climate Change Censorship_](http://time.com/5075265/epa-website-climate-change-censorship/) Wheeler said he believes that water, not climate change, is the number one environmental challenge facing the planet today. “When you have a thousand children that die a day from lack of drinking water, that’s a crisis and that’s a crisis that we — we collectively as the world — know how to solve that problem,” he said, according to Reuters. Last year, a landmark U.N. report gave the world 12 years to avert a climate catastrophe and [pressed governments](http://time.com/5418134/ipcc-climate-change-report-2030-crisis/) to act urgently. President Trump has sought to boost fossil fuel production in the U.S. and earlier this week issued two executive orders to push states to [speed up oil and gas pipeline construction.](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/10/business/energy-environment/trump-oil-gas-pipelines.html) Wheeler said the EPA will soon release clarifications and parameters for states to veto energy projects over environmental concerns. “If the states that are blocking the pipelines were truly concerned about the environment they would look to where \[their imported\] natural gas would be coming from, and they are forcing the New England states to use Russian-produced natural gas which is not as clean as U.S. natural gas,” Wheeler said. “I think it’s very short-sighted.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5569214/epa-chief-andrew-wheeler-climate-change/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5569214/epa-chief-andrew-wheeler-climate-change/"},"headline":"EPA Chief Says Climate Change Is Not His Top Priority","datePublished":"2019-04-12T06:50:36.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T23:17:11.471Z","description":"He said water, not climate change, is the number one challenge","url":"https://time.com/5569214/epa-chief-andrew-wheeler-climate-change/","keywords":["Environment","onetime","overnight"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt404d6b4fe6278cb4/698948207cdbac24eed5f553/andrew-wheeler-epa.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Amy Gunia","jobTitle":"Gunia was a reporter for TIME based in Hong Kong.","url":"https://time.com/author/amy-gunia/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt404d6b4fe6278cb4/698948207cdbac24eed5f553/andrew-wheeler-epa.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"andrew-wheeler-epa","caption":"Andrew Wheeler EPA","creditText":"Patrick Semansky—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/environment/","name":"Environment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5569214/epa-chief-andrew-wheeler-climate-change/","name":"EPA Chief Says Climate Change Is Not His Top Priority"}}]}] ```