JUDY WOODRUFF: Like most
government agencies,
the Environmental
Protection Agency has been

affected by the shutdown.

Today, the acting chief of the
EPA, Andrew Wheeler, faced a
confirmation hearing in the

Senate on his nomination to be
the agency's permanent head.

Wheeler took over the agency
this summer, after Scott
Pruitt resigned amid multiple

investigations.

Before he joined the Trump
administration, Wheeler lobbied
on behalf of coal industry,

and critics say that creates
ethical problems as well.

As acting chief, he's delivered
on a promise of deregulation
that the president campaigned

on and is strongly
welcomed by many business
and farming voices.

Wheeler oversaw rollbacks
on car fuel standards,
mercury emissions
standards and federal water

rules.

He has also downplayed the
overwhelming scientific
consensus on the threat
of climate change.

Today, Senator Bernie
Sanders zeroed in on that.

SEN.

BERNIE SANDERS (I), Vermont: Do
you agree with the scientific
community that climate

change is a global crisis
that must be addressed
in an aggressive way?

ANDREW WHEELER, Acting EPA
Administrator: I believe that
climate change is a global

issue that must be
addressed globally.

No one country can...

SEN.

BERNIE SANDERS: That
wasn't my question, sir.

Do you agree with the
scientific community?

ANDREW WHEELER: I wouldn't call
it the greatest crisis, no, sir.

I consider it a huge issue that
has to be addressed globally.

SEN.

BERNIE SANDERS: Well,
you are -- I found it
interesting, Mr. Wheeler.

You are the nominee to be
head of the Environmental
Protection Agency.

You, just in your opening
statement, didn't mention
the word climate change.

JUDY WOODRUFF: During Wheeler's
hearing, the government
shutdown came up several times.

We talked to two reporters
today who specialize
in the environment who
are focused on that

issue.

Coral Davenport of The New
York Times has been covering
how inspections of chemical

factories and many other
industrial sites are
not happening right now.

CORAL DAVENPORT, The New
York Times: Typically,
these inspectors, these
EPA, engineers and

scientists, would be going to
places like power plants, oil
refineries, chemical facilities,

chemical manufacturers.

And they would be
looking for things like,
are these facilities
complying with the law?

Are they keeping their
emission levels in
accordance with the law?

Do they have any
broken equipment?

Do they have hazardous material
on site that's supposed to
be taken out and dealt with?

Are they dumping toxic or
hazardous chemicals into nearby
rivers and streams, which could

be much cheaper and easier
way of getting rid of things?

None of this is being
overseen right now.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Now, not all of
these potential violations are
dangerous, but Davenport told

us there are far more
than the public realizes.

CORAL DAVENPORT: I talked to
a furloughed EPA worker who
oversees these inspections.

And she said that every
inspection she has
ever done, she finds
some kind of violation,

maybe not an extremely hazardous
violation, but always some
kind of violation, always

something that
could be dangerous.

So, with the shutdown now
going into a few weeks, this is
hundreds and hundreds of these

inspections around the country
that are not happening, and
facility owners that know that,

for the foreseeable
future, these inspectors
will not be on site.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Coral Davenport
also told us that most
companies wouldn't seek to take

advantage of this gap
in inspections, but
the risks remain real.

CORAL DAVENPORT: More than
90 percent of industries
are pretty good actors.

They don't want
to break the law.

They don't want to be fined.

A lot of times, these
violations of pollution
rules are unintentional.

A site might have a piece of
equipment that's broken that
a company might not know about

that could be leaching hazardous
material, hazardous waste.

And so the inspectors I
talk to say, this is putting
communities absolutely at risk

of being exposed to potentially
toxic, hazardous chemicals or
waste from industrial sites.

JUDY WOODRUFF: The inspections
are not the only concern.

Ellen Knickmeyer of the
Associated Press has
been reporting on the
stoppage of longtime

work and cleanup at Superfund
toxic waste sites nationwide.

Here's some of what she told us.

®MDNMLLEN KNICKMEYER,
Associated Press: There
are hundreds of sites
around the country

that include some of the most
contaminated sites in the U.S.

They could be old mines.

They could be old factories,
places that are contaminated
by chemicals or radiation or

some other threat.

Normally, federal workers would
be helping with the cleanup
of Superfund sites all around

the country.

And that's not happening
with the shutdown.

The people we talked, including
former EPA Superfund officials,
they said if the shutdown

was one or two weeks, it's
not that big of a problem.

But, as time goes on, and as the
risk of some kind of flood or
rain or something that causes

problems increases, then the
risk of something going wrong
for the public living around the

sites increases.

JUDY WOODRUFF: The
AP's Ellen Knickmeyer.

And we will continue to
watch all these concerns
in the days to come.