Trump picked two very good people from Washington to be on the EPA Transition Team. From The Seattle Times:
Trump administration taps two Washington state legislators to help reshape EPA
Two longtime Republican state legislators from Washington state have been tapped by President Donald Trump to help reshape the Environmental Protection Agency.
Former state Sen. Don Benton, of Vancouver, and state Sen. Doug Ericksen, R-Ferndale, are among 10 officials who joined the EPA over the weekend as part of a transition effort.
Senator Eriksen is going to retain his Senate seat as the Republicans hold a 25 to 24 majority. He will divide his time between here and D.C. A bit more:
Ericksen said he doesn’t want to live in Washington, D.C., but is interested in a local role, such as administrator for the EPA’s Region 10, which includes Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska.
Trump has nominated Scott Pruitt, Oklahoma’s attorney general, as EPA administrator, a sharp critic of the EPA under the Obama administration who is expected to make major changes in an agency with wide-ranging responsibilities for enforcing clean water, clean air, pesticide and other major environmental regulations.
A climate change skeptic and an ally of the oil and gas industry, Pruitt joined a multistate lawsuit challenging the Obama administration’s plans to limit emissions from coal-fired power plants and was a sharp critic of EPA regulation.
Good - the EPA did their job when they were founded but like any bureaucracy, they have greatly expanded their scope in order to gather political power and they are now out of control. The people of the EPA are unelected - top officials are appointed but there is no external oversight and no accountability for poor decisions. Time for them to be throttled back about 40% and for them to be returned to their original task - pollution.
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