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WASHINGTON — A rare confirmation battle is brewing around the nomination of Andrew Wheeler, who heads the Environmental Protection Agency under President Donald J. Trump, to assume a similar role in a new Republican state administration in Virginia.

Democratic leaders have said they will seek to prevent Mr Wheeler from being responsible for conservation programs, environmental cleanup and climate change initiatives, as opposed as EPA executive.

Resistance against Mr Wheeler began to mount just minutes after a Republican announced his candidacy for secretary of natural resources by Governor Glenn Youngkin, who was elected on Wednesday. who will swear on January 15th.

Republicans gained control of the House of Delegates in November, but Democrats hold a 21-to-19 majority in the State Senate. They could block Mr Wheeler’s confirmation if every Senate Democrat votes against him.

In a state where polite politics has long been the norm, it would be one of only a few times in recent history for a governor’s election to be overturned.

Democratic lawmakers on Thursday said Mr Wheeler’s work as a former coal lobbyist and his role at the EPA in reversing federal protections against air and water pollution are reasons to fight his appointment.

“Our governors don’t tend to recommend people for these positions that are so polarizing,” said Scott A. Surovell, a Democratic state senator from Northern Virginia. “I can’t think of a candidate with as controversial a history as this man in the last 20 years.”

Mr Surovell, vice chairman of the Senate Democratic committee, said he was unsure if there were enough votes to beat Mr Wheeler’s nomination. However, he said he had been texting all day from colleagues who expressed surprise at Mr. Youngkin’s choice.

“If elected Governor Youngkin continues to insist on his candidacy, I think there is a possibility that he will be rejected,” Mr. Surovell said.

Mr Wheeler, who lives in Virginia, did not respond to an email asking for comment. A spokesperson for Mr. Youngkin also declined to comment.

In a statement announcing that he has nominated Michael Rolband as state director for environmental quality alongside Mr Wheeler, Mr Youngkin said, “Virginia needs a diverse energy portfolio to support our economic growth, conserve and protect our natural resources. A comprehensive plan to tackle rising sea levels. Andrew and Michael share my vision of finding new ways to replenish and use our natural resources to provide a stable, reliable and growing power supply that will meet Virginia’s power demands without costing the consumer.”

In September, Mr. Wheeler, Va. He testified before the supervisory board in Fairfax County, describing the proposed plan against the 5-cent tax on single-use plastic bags as “misguided.”

“The appointment of someone like Wheeler is dangerous and reckless,” said Connor Kish, legislative and political director of the Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club, an environmental group. Mr Kish said the department had directly lobbied to silence Mr Wheeler’s endorsement, the first time the group had done so for a state-level candidate in his memory.

Despite still opposing his policies, Mr. Wheeler was briefly a balm at a time of great concern in the EPA when he took over management in 2018 after his predecessor, Scott Pruitt. resigned amid federal ethics investigations. Beginning his career at the EPA in the 1990s and before serving in the Senate for more than a decade, Mr. Wheeler was seen as a technocrat who was not in the limelight and focused on pushing his bosses’ agendas forward.

“It’s going to be a very, very stable hand,” said Michael Catanzaro, an energy lobbyist and partner at CGCN Group, a consulting firm that has served in the Trump administration.

“Is he going to implement the policies the governor wants? Yes,” said Mr. Catanzaro. “The environmental community won’t like it, but they should at least have some respect for Andy and his decades of experience in energy and environmental issues.”

Mr. Youngkin has already said he wants to remove Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a carbon market that includes 10 other Northeast and Mid-Atlantic States. Virginia has recently completed the first full cycle of quarterly carbon auctions that have generated approximately $228 million in revenue for flood protection and clean energy programs in low-income areas.

Legal experts said it was unclear whether Mr Youngkin could unilaterally withdraw Virginia from the initiative because his involvement was permitted by state law.

The legislature has also passed the Clean Economy Act of 2020, which commits Virginia to switch its electrical grid to 100 percent carbon-neutral power by 2050. Democratic lawmakers said they feared Mr Wheeler might try to slow or weaken the practice.

“I’m very concerned that it will not only stall the bill, but actively undermine it,” said State Senator Jennifer McClellan, a Charles City County Democrat and architect of the Clean Economy Act. He said the law resulted in Virginia being ranked 5th nationally in the growth of solar power.

Ms McClellan declined to say whether she would vote against Mr Wheeler, but said she had concerns: “I’m not sure she can handle it.”

The last time the Virginia General Assembly rejected a nomination was in 2006, when Republicans opposed Governor Tim Kaine’s appointment of Daniel LeBlanc as Secretary of the Commonwealth, said Cale Jaffe, director of the University of Virginia’s Environmental Law and Community Engagement Clinic. Law.

“It is historically rare for the General Assembly to contest a governor’s cabinet election, but this is not unprecedented,” he said.