Morning Energy

Source: By Jack Shafer, Politico • Posted: Thursday, January 26, 2017

Latest on timing: Members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee asked Pruitt to respond to hundreds of questions for the record after his hearing. Those responses were due Tuesday, and Chairman John Barrasso hopes to advance the nomination soon: “We’re ready to move ahead,” he told reporters. But Ranking Member Tom Carper said not so fast: “We need to get his responses, we need to read his responses and then we’ll decide how to go forward,” the Delaware Democrat told ME.

It’s gonna be May: Pruitt is expected to be confirmed soon (although not this week thanks to the GOP retreat). But after that, don’t expect other top EPA officials to be in place until summer, statistically speaking. A neatanalysis by the Association of Air Pollution Control Agencies found that — on average — first-term EPA administrators since 1988 have been confirmed on Jan. 27, but that the next earliest average confirmation for a top agency job was the deputy, on July 11. That’s followed by assistant administrators for air and enforcement on July 20, and the general counsel on Aug. 29. Senators aren’t dragging their feet; AAPCA found most of those officials on average were not nominated until sometime in May.

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