Environmentalists Plan To Ask Senate To Reject EPA Waste Office Nominee

摘要

Environmentalists are circulating a draft letter for signature that urges senators to reject the Trump administration's nomination of Peter Wright, in-house counsel at DowDuPont, to lead EPA's waste office, arguing that he is a bad fit given his years-long work for the chemical industry giant that created numerous toxic waste sites and its opposition to a chemical security rule."Due to his nearly two decades of work protecting the interests of a corporation with a striking record of hazardous chemical releases and toxic waste sites, Mr. Wright should not be granted the responsibility and decision-making authority to lead [EPA's Office of Land & Emergency Management (OLEM)], which would require him to implement and enforce vital health, safety, and environmental laws against his current employer and others like it," the draft letter says. The letter is available on lnsideEPA.com. (Doc. ID: 211363)While environmentalists and citizen group representatives have criticized Wright, charging he has a conflict of interest, the letter will mark the first sign of formal opposition from the groups to President Donald Trump's March 6 nomination of the long-time in-house counsel for Dow Chemical Company, now known as DowDuPont - to lead OLEM. The office oversees the agency's cleanup programs as well as national emergency responses.