Andrew R. Wheeler (born December 23, 1964[citation needed]) is an American attorney who served as the 15th administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from 2019 to 2021.

He previously worked in the law firm Faegre Baker Daniels, representing coal magnate Robert E. Murray and lobbying against the Obama administration's environmental regulations.

[5] In October 2017, Wheeler was nominated by President Donald Trump,[6] renominated in January 2018,[7] and confirmed as Deputy Administrator of the EPA in April 2018.

[6] During this time, Wheeler generally sought to reduce government regulations on industries that generate greenhouse gases.

[15] From 2009 until 2017, Wheeler was a lobbyist in the law firm Faegre Baker Daniels' energy and natural resources practice.

[4][22] In October 2017, Wheeler was nominated by President Trump to become Deputy Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

The EPA falsely claimed that the Obama administration had pushed the authors of the report to focus on the worst-case scenario.

In doing so, the EPA cited a story by the Daily Caller, a conservative website founded by Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson.

[35] In March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, the EPA declared that for an indefinite amount of time, it would generally not fine companies for violating environment regulations for "routine compliance monitoring [of pollution], integrity testing, sampling, laboratory analysis, training, and reporting or certification obligations", if the EPA agreed that the COVID-19 pandemic caused the violation.

Wheeler said that the EPA "recognizes challenges resulting from efforts to protect workers and the public from Covid-19 may directly impact the ability of regulated facilities to meet all federal regulatory requirements.

"[36][37] In April 2020, the EPA declined to raise environmental standards for fine soot pollution (PM 2.5), during a mandated review.

After the publication of that report, numerous industries, including oil and coal companies, automakers and chemical manufacturers, urged the Trump administration to disregard the findings and not tighten the rule.

The draft of the new rule stated Wheeler placed "little weight on quantitative estimates" of deaths caused by fine soot pollution, reported the New York Times.

[43] On July 1, 2022, Youngkin picked Wheeler to be director of his newly created Office of Regulatory Management, in addition to still being a senior advisor.

[47] His remarks came in the wake of an IPCC report which concluded that if greenhouse gas emissions were not halved by 2030, there would be catastrophic consequences.