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.