Senator Inhofe said this week that, should Mr.

Wheeler be nominated to lead the agency, he would

expect the confirmation to be straightforward. “I know there is no opposition to him,” the senator
said. “He is of course the favorite of the president, and of mine.”

Mr. Wheeler won Senate confirmation to the No. 2 position at the agency on a mostly party-line
vote, with three Democrats supporting him. It is not clear that he will have unanimous
Republican support to be administrator.

Some environmentalists said Friday that Mr. Wheeler’s past lobbying on behalf of the coal
industry should disqualify him from leading an agency with a mission of protecting human health
and the environment. Some Democrats in the Senate have also expressed reservations.

Senator Tom Carper of Delaware, the leading Democrat on the Environment and Public Works
Committee, which oversees the E.P.A., said this week that, while he liked Mr. Wheeler and
considered him an improvement over Mr. Pruitt, he was not ready to support his formal ascent to
head of the agency.

“We need to make progress, especially in reducing the carbon sources from the biggest source in
the environment, the mobile fleet,” Senator Carper said, referring to the E.P.A. plan to loosen auto
emissions standards.

Mr. Wheeler in the Friday morning interview cited the plan to relax auto emissions rules as one
that he wanted to see through as administrator, as well as his replacement of the Clean Power
Plan for coal-fired power plants, and a clean-water rule that clarifies which wetlands and small
waterways are protected by the Clean Water Act.

When Mr. Wheeler joined the E.P.A., he found an agency in turmoil. Morale was at a low and
career biologists, chemists and others were leaving.

Mr. Pruitt’s lawyer, Cleta Mitchell, declined to comment.

Mr. Wheeler’s first move as acting administrator was to cast off Mr. Pruitt’s personal security
team. He also made a point of inviting career employees into policy briefings, and visiting all 10 of
the agency’s regional offices, something Mr. Pruitt did not do.

The shadow of Mr. Pruitt still looms over Mr. Wheeler, who said in the interview Friday that he
preferred not to discuss his former boss. “I try not to talk about Scott Pruitt or the differences
between us,” he said. But, he added, “I get a lot of thank-yous from the staff just for being with
them, talking to them.”

For more news on climate and the environment, follow @NYTClimate on Twitter.

Lisa Friedman reports on climate and environmental policy in Washington. A former editor at Climatewire, she
has covered nine international climate talks. @LFFriedman
A version of this article appears in print on Nov. 17, 2018, on Page A12 of the New York edition with the headline: Trump Says Ex-Lobbyist Is His
Pick For E.P.A.