Environmental Protection Agency, Administrator

Department/Agency: Environmental Protection Agency

Position:

Administrator

Executive Schedule: Executive Level IV - Presidential Appointment with Senate Confirmation

Major Responsibilities:

Oversee programs to protect human health and safeguard air, water and land
Manage more than 17,000 employees and a $7 billion budget
Coordinate implementation of environmental protection law with other federal agencies and the states
Work with international organizations on environmental protection, policy and research
Educate the public about environmental issues

Key Competencies and Preferred Qualifications:

Executive experience
Familiarity with environmental policy

Insight:

A new concern for the environment was strongly in the air across America in 1970. Senator Gaylord Nelson, a Wisconsin Democrat, organized the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, and 20 million people turned out to protest pollution, pesticides, toxic dumps and other threats to the air they breathed. The issue of the environment barely had been mentioned in the 1968 presidential race, but a 1969 oil spill off Santa Barbara, California, and the night the Cuyahoga River caught fire in Cleveland raised alarms and awareness nationwide. President Richard M. Nixon established by executive order a Council on Environmental Quality to "provide leadership in protecting and enhancing the quality of the Nation's environment to sustain and enrich human life." Nixon gave serious thought to establishing a Cabinet-level Department of Environment and Natural Resources, but facing resistance from Congress opted instead to create two independent entities called the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. EPA took over duties from Interior, Agriculture, HEW, the Atomic Energy Commission and other agencies. Nixon notified Congress of the reorganization three months after Earth Day. "As concern with the condition of our physical environment has intensified, it has become increasingly clear that we need to know more about the total environment--land, water, and air. It also has become increasingly clear that only by reorganizing our Federal efforts can we develop that knowledge, and effectively ensure the protection, development and enhancement of the total environment itself," Nixon said in his message. EPA opened for business in December 1970, with attorney and lifelong environmentalist William D. Ruckelshaus, at its helm. Today the EPA administrator holds Cabinet rank and heads an agency with more than 18,000 employees and a budget surpassing $8 billion.

Even before the administrator was accorded Cabinet rank, the job has attracted a succession of prominent politicians and environmentalists. Ruckelshaus was succeeded in 1973 by Russell Train, a judge and former president of the Conservation Foundation who had chaired the Council on Environmental Quality. Douglas Costle, an attorney who headed the White House study that recommended creation of EPA, headed the agency during the Carter years. Ronald Reagan's first EPA administrator, Anne M. Gorsuch, had a rocky and controversial tenure as she cut the agency's budget and rolled back rules before resigning under fire in 1983 over charges she mismanaged the Superfund cleanup. Reagan brought back Ruckelshaus to replace her and placate critics. President George H.W. Bush tapped the president of the World Wildlife Fund, William K. Reilly, as EPA administrator, and Carol Browner, a lawyer and environmentalist from Florida, led the agency during the Clinton years. Browner also has advised President-elect Barack Obama on environmental issues.

EPA again became a magnet for controversy under President George W. Bush, with critics charging his White House exerted undue political pressure on the EPA, handicapping the agency's ability to address such pressing environmental issues as global warming. Former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman resigned after 28 months as EPA administrator, reportedly frustrated over the administration's stance on global warming and constant pressure from the White House, including Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force, to ease air pollution controls on aging, coal-fired power plants. Whitman later told Washington Post journalists that she fought "tooth and nail" against a pro-industry rule to allow some of the nation's dirtiest plants to escape installing costly new pollution controls. The White House pushed the rule through - pushing Whitman out. "I just couldn't sign it," she said. "The president has a right to have an administrator who could defend it, and I just couldn't."

Whitman clashed with the White House on other issues that pitted industry interests over health concerns. When the EPA learned that deadly asbestos from a Montana mine had made it into the insulation in millions of American homes, businesses and schools, Whitman advocated declaring a public-health emergency. But OMB blocked the EPA's strong warning, according to investigative journalist Andrew Schneider, who later coauthored a book on the scandal, "An Air That Kills: How the Asbestos Poisoning of Libby, Montana, Uncovered a National Scandal." A watered-down warning about the insulation hazard was finally made public.

The EPA and Whitman faced major challenges in handling the environmental clean-ups following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon and the contamination of U.S. Capitol offices and postal facilities from anthrax mailed to leaders of Congress and the media that fall. Whitman told lawmakers in September 2002 that both those attacks underscored the need to strengthen protections for such critical infrastructure as water systems and chemical facilities.

Whitman's successor, Utah Governor Michael O. Leavitt, was more closely aligned with the Bush administration's pro-industry environmental agenda and fewer controversies erupted during his 13 months at EPA. A deft politician, Leavitt embellished his reputation as a consensus builder and pragmatic manager before moving over to the Department of Health and Human Services as secretary during Bush's second term. A U.S. Chamber of Commerce official, William Kovacs, vice president for environment, told USA Today, "The EPA was slowly getting out of control under his predecessor. He brought it back under control."

The Bush administration changed course in 2005 by appointing a career scientist rather than a seasoned political figure as EPA administrator. Stephen Johnson was viewed as a positive choice to lead the troubled agency by both industry and environmental interest groups. However, he, too, came under fire for allowing the White House to dictate EPA actions. While the administration eventually acknowledged a link between climate change and greenhouse gas emissions, Johnson thwarted state efforts to crack down on auto emissions. The EPA blocked California and 16 other states in December 2007 from clamping their own rules on carbon dioxide emissions from cars and trucks. "The Bush administration is moving forward with a clear national solution, not a confusing patchwork of state rules," Johnson told reporters. "I believe this is a better approach than if individual states were to act alone." The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee launched an investigation in May 2008 to determine whether Johnson's opposition to these state efforts was based on EPA scientific judgment or White House interference. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) called Johnson a "figurehead" and charged, "The president apparently insisted on his judgment and overrode the unanimous recommendations of EPA scientific and legal experts."

President-elect Barack Obama is expected to push for stricter auto fuel economy rules and more stringent controls on industrial pollution. In remarks to a Governors' Global Climate Summit on Nov. 18, the president-elect said, "Now is the time to confront this challenge once and for all. Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response. The stakes are too high, the consequences too serious." His choice for EPA administrator will have to balance a commitment to the president's priorities with a respect for the independence and scientific expertise of the EPA. The process will be complicated by budget woes that will limit the opportunities for new initiatives and programs aimed at protecting the environment. And Waxman, the new chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, will be in a position to hold the new administration's feet to the fire for action on these environmental issues.

Key Relationships – Within the Department or Agency:

Deputy Administrator
General Counsel
Assistant Administrators
Regional Administrators

Key Relationships – Within the Government:

Secretary, Department of Energy
Secretary, Department of the Interior
Administrator, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Other Cabinet secretaries and agency heads
Council on Environmental Quality, Executive Office of the President
Associate Director, Natural Resources, Energy and Science, OMB
Administrator, Information and Regulatory Affairs, OMB

Key Relationships – Outside the Government:

Environmental groups
Regulated industries and trade associations
Directors of counterpart agencies in each state
State governors, health commissioners, attorneys general and agriculture officials
Counterparts in other governments
Representatives of international organizations

Nomination Referred to:

Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works

Current Position Profile:

1. Lisa P. Jackson (Confirmed: January 22, 2009). Former Chief of Staff, Governor Jon Corzine (D-NJ), State of New Jersey. Former Commissioner, Department of Environmental Protection, State of New Jersey. Former Director, Enforcement and Compliance Assistance, United States Environmental Protection Agency.

Recent Position Profiles:

2. Stephen Johnson, M.S. (2005-2008). Scientist and 27-year EPA veteran. Former deputy administrator. Led EPA's Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances. Once directed operations at Hazelton Laboratories Corp. and Litton Bionetics, Inc.

3. Michael O. Leavitt (2003-2005). Former governor of Utah. Former president and CEO of the Leavitt Group, nation's 15^th largest insurance brokerage. Now secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

4. Christine T. Whitman (2001-2003). Former governor of New Jersey. Former president of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. Later president of Whitman Strategy Group.