By Valerie Volcovici

WASHINGTON (Reuters] – Virginia Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin announced on Wednesday that he would appoint Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency administrator as the state’s top regulator.

Youngkin was a Republican and won against a Democratic challenger. In November, Youngkin announced that he had chosen Andrew Wheeler to be the state’s next secretary for Natural Resources, while Michael Rolband will become the director of Environmental Quality.

  Wheeler, who served as Trump’s second EPA administrator, led that administration’s efforts to undo major environmental regulations for power plants and cars and downplayed the urgency of addressing climate change. Rolband founded the consulting company Wetland Studies and Solutions, Inc.

“Andrew and Michael share my vision in finding new ways to innovate and use our natural resources to provide Virginia with a stable, dependable, and growing power supply that will meet Virginia’s power demands without passing the costs on to the consumer,” said Youngkin.

Wheeler was a long-serving career employee at the EPA, under President George W. Bush. He also had a number of roles in the private sector including that as a lobbyist for coal.

Youngkin pledged last month to eliminate Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a market-based program that reduces greenhouse gas emissions from power stations in 11 U.S. Northeastern and mid-Atlantic States.

Virginia’s Democratic Governor Ralph Northam passed a bill to become RGGI members in March 2020. This brought $228 million into Virginia for state funding programs related to energy efficiency and flood control.

Democratic legislators and environmental groups expressed concern about Wheeler’s record at the EPA and how it will impact Virginia’s environment policies and growth as a major producer of renewable energy.

According to Wood Mackenzie, Virginia was fourth in the market for solar installation. It also ranked third in the first quarter of 2021, after Texas and California. It was 19th in 2019.

“We are concerned about Administrator Wheeler’s track record of rolling back key environmental protections at the EPA,” said Elly Boehmer, policy director at Environment Virginia, adding that her group will continue to press Youngkin and the legislature to uphold environmental laws and stay in RGGI.

“Putting an anti-environment ideologue in this important position would be a far cry from the kind of consensus-based, pragmatic leadership the Governor-elect promised,” said Democratic Congressman Don Beyer.

Reuters reached out to Wheeler for comment but he did not reply.

Wheeler, a Fairfax County resident, Virginia spoke out last year against an attempt to tax single-use plastic bags by the county at 5 cents.