Just one year ago, Andrew Wheeler worked as one of the coal industrys most powerful lobbyists, serving as coal baron Bob Murrays Capitol Hill muscle, challenging environmental regulations and casting doubt on the science behind climate change.

On Monday, Wheeler will take over at the Environmental Protection Agency, after Administrator Scott Pruitts sudden resignation Thursday amid a five-month avalanche of ethics and legal controversies.

Wheelers ascension, while expected to return stability to the scandal-struck EPA, demonstrates how the administration secured the future of its radical plan to dismantle the nations leading public health agency at the behest of the industries it regulates, amid the distractions of Pruitts humiliating final months as the agencys second-shortest-serving administrator in history.

He will be potentially considerably more effective, both because you dont have the daily drama that youve had for the last several months and because Andy knows how the system works, said Stan Meiburg, a former acting deputy EPA administrator who spent 39 years at the agency. He could be more effective for the administration in achieving its policy objectives.

Pruitt left behind a considerable legacy of halting critical regulations, reshaping the EPAs science advisory boards and provoking an exodus of talent from the agency that could take decades to reverse. Yet roughly one-third of the regulatory rollbacks Pruitt attempted were halted by legal challenges setbacks widely attributed to his brash style and overeagerness to antagonize environmentalists. Still, he proposed some of the most drastic changes to the agency in his final months.

In April he proposed gutting auto emissions standards , which would essentially eliminate the only remaining major federal rule to curb greenhouse gases. Weeks later, he put forward a transparency rule that would dramatically limit the public health studies the EPA may use when writing regulations. By June, Pruitt kicked the effort up a notch, issuing a formal notice to solicit ideas on how the agency performs regulatory cost-benefit analyses, in a move widely seen as a giveaway to industry polluters, and proposed a regulation to replace a landmark Obama-era rule protecting drinking water for 117 million Americans.

By taking these steps as formal rulemaking changes rather than executive actions, the processes will continue in his absence, likely with far less of the scrutiny that his notoriety invited.

The EPA did not respond to requests for comment and an interview with Wheeler.

We have full confidence in acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler to carry President Trumps important EPA reform agenda forward, said Myron Ebell, a veteran climate change denier who led Trumps EPA transition team.

Two right-wing operatives who run separate climate denial blogs shared the same reaction to Wheelers promotion: Winning .