James V. Aidala Quoted In Bloomberg Environment Article “Wheeler More Aware of Chemical Issues Than Most EPA Heads”

On July 12, 2018, Bloomberg Environment quoted James V. Aidala, Senior Government Affairs Consultant with Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. (B&C^®) regarding Acting Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Andrew Wheeler’s experience with the chemical regulatory landscape. 

The EPA’s new acting administrator is more familiar than past agency heads were with the nation’s primary chemicals statute, giving him insight into tensions arising in implementing it, attorneys said.

The attorneys also predicted that Andrew Wheeler—who worked in the Environmental Protection Agency’s chemicals office from 1991 through 1994—won’t depart from the policies of his predecessor Scott Pruitt.

“He will be more familiar than past administrators. He has at least some familiarity with TSCA and TRI,” said Jim Aidala, senior government affairs consultant with Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. in Washington, referring to the Toxic Substances Control Act and Toxics Release Inventory.

That experience should help Wheeler appreciate the tension between companies’ need to have proprietary information kept confidential and the public’s right to know, said Aidala, a former assistant administrator for what’s now the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention.

[…]

But the question [of Wheeler’s lobbying background meaning he will have to recuse himself from some agency decisions] isn’t that black and white, Aidala said. Just because a former client makes a chemical doesn’t mean that Wheeler will have to recuse himself from every decision involving that chemical, he said.

See – https://bnanews.bna.com/environment-and-energy/wheeler-more-aware-of-chemical-issues-than-most-epa-heads (subscription required)