Environmentalists Concerned About New EPA Appointments

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Environmentalists Concerned About New EPA Appointments

 

 

 

Bush Greenwatch

 

August 9, 2005 | Back Issues

 

Environmentalists Concerned About New EPA Appointments

 

Reshuffling and resignations at the Environmental Protection Agency

(EPA) have generated a flurry of nominees that for the most part have

avoided media attention. The changes are causing concern among

environmental and watchdog organizations.

 

The second-in-command position at EPA was vacated when Stephen Johnson

was promoted to EPA Administrator. Late last month the Senate

confirmed Marcus Peacock as the new deputy administrator. Peacock will

be moving over from the White House Office of Management and Budget,

where he oversaw its environmental, energy, and science programs.

 

Gary Bass, executive director of OMB Watch, describes Peacock as a

conservative ideologue " with a decidedly anti-environmental regulatory

track record. " In the first days of the Bush administration, the White

House froze more than a dozen Clinton-era rules related to

environment, health, and safety, including rules on arsenic in

drinking water, snowmobiles in national parks, and protections for

roadless areas of national forests. According to Bass, Peacock was

instrumental in the decision to put a hold on rule-making in these

areas, as well as a steady succession of budget cuts the White House

requested for EPA.

 

The Bush Administration also announced its choice for the top science

position in the Office of Research and Development. George Gray,

currently executive director of Harvard's Center for Risk Analysis

(HCRA), awaits Senate confirmation of his nomination. HRCA has

garnered attention in the past over its conflict of interest policy

and more recently over a review of scientific research concerning the

endocrine disrupting chemical found in plastics, bisphenol-A.

 

The Center's review, funded by the American Plastics Council,

concluded that bisphenol-A does not cause harm at low doses. A 2005

study released in the science journal Environmental Health

Perspectives also conducted a review of research concerning

bisphenol-A and found that over 90 percent of independent studies

report harmful effects of low dose exposure to bisphenol-A, while 100

percent of industry-funded studies report no significant adverse

effects. [1]

 

Another key vacancy was created with the resignation of Jeffrey

Holmstead, assistant administrator in charge of EPA's Office of Air

and Radiation. In the interim that position will be filled by Bill

Wehrum, a former lobbyist for Latham & Watkins -- a law firm that

represents major business interests.

 

Wehrum was a lead author of the ill-fated " Clear Skies " legislation,

and played a key role in weakening air pollution controls for

coal-fired power plants. He also assisted in shaping the

Administration's market-based trading program for mercury emissions,

which are now being challenged in federal court.

 

EPA's enforcement division has a new nominee to fill the vacancy

created by Thomas Skinner, who was acting enforcement chief. Late last

month, the Senate confirmed Granta Nakayama to head the enforcement

office at EPA.

 

Heading the enforcement office has become unusually difficult at the

EPA. Predecessors, Sylvia Lowrance and J.P. Suarez, both spoke

candidly to the press after leaving the post about the enormous

difficulties of working in the EPA enforcement program under President

Bush. The exodus at the EPA enforcement office began when Eric

Schaeffer, then director of EPA's Office of Regulatory Enforcement,

stepped down in 2002 protesting failures to enforce the Clean Air Act.

 

In an interview with Grist Magazine, Schaeffer commented on current

working conditions in the enforcement office, " It's a crap job right

now. " Schaeffer added, " You have the White House boxing you in all the

time, you have program officers trying to block your cases. Basically,

if you do your job right in this climate, you'll anger a lot of your

superiors. Enforcement is not the place to be right now if you are

going to advance your political career. "

 

Nakayama, similar to other Bush Administration nominees, also has a

history of lobbying for industry interests, including the snowmobiling

industry, during his time as an attorney for the law firm Kirkland &

Ellis.

 

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This story was jointly produced by BushGreenwatch and Grist Magazine.

For more on this story, visit Grist Magazine.

 

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SOURCES:

[1] Environmental Health Perspectives, April 2005.

 

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