Wheeler Swiftly Hires Pending EPA Nominees To Assist With Key Programs

摘要

Incoming acting EPA chief Andrew Wheeler is hiring two pending assistant administrator (AA) nominees as special counsels, signaling the new administrator is moving quickly to add senior leadership to the agency.A July 6 email to all EPA employees from Chief of Staff Ryan Jackson obtained by Inside EPA says that Peter Wright, a Dow Chemical official who is nominated as AA for the Office of Land & Emergency Management (OLEM), and W. Charles "Chad" Mclntosh, a Ford Motor Co. official who has been nominated as AA for International & Tribal Affairs, will both start as special counsels to the administrator July 9 - the same day Wheeler officially takes the helm as acting administrator following Scott Pruitt's July 5 resignation."I am pleased to report that we have new senior leaders joining the agency. Please join me in welcoming Peter Wright and Chad Mclntosh to EPA," Jackson's email says.Wright and Mclntosh had appeared at their joint June 20 confirmation hearing before the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee (EPW), after which Chairman John Barrasso (R-WY) told reporters that a vote on neither nomination would occur before July 9, which is the date their answers to questions posed by committee members are due.