So Pruitt’s Gone- But Who Is The Next Head of the EPA?
After a long road of criticism and scandal, Scott Pruitt, Donald Trump’s appointee to the directorship of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has resigned. Now the question on everyone’s tongue is who will fill in his place. It’s hard to predict the actions of an administration that has been as steeped in chaos as the current one, but there are many qualified candidates for the job.
Terry Tamminen
Although he was originally born in Australia, Terry Tamminen has long since been a resident of Santa Monica, California. As an author and non-profit executive, he has gained a reputation for his focus on environmental policy. He is highly educated and has a background in environmental politics which should be preferential to a President in search of an advisor. Under Arnold Schwarzenegger’s time as Governor of California, Tamminen ran the California EPA for a year before being promoted to Chief Policy Advisor to the Governor. Unlike many others on this list, Tamminen is also a Republican, which would make him a more likely candidate for Trump’s Administration than his more liberal peers.
Amory Lovins
For an activist, Amory Lovins is about as apolitical as you can get, and above all, he’s a safe bet. If you’re looking for academic prestige, you can look no further than Lovins’s background at Harvard and later Oxford. Not only has he set up his own advocacy groups, but he literally wrote the book on environmentalism- 31 books to be exact. Lovins is a supporter of free market capitalism and private enterprise which would fit in with Trump’s conservative economic policy and seeing as he’s briefed 19 heads of state in the past, a role as an advisor for the president isn’t too much of a stretch.
Al Gore
The former Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize winner is a tenured Washington D.C. politician with an in with the Trump family and administration. Although, Al Gore is most well known as a Democrat, his background in environmentalism and previous research into climate change may prove to be more important to filling the absence of a heavily criticized leader of the EPA such as Scott Pruitt than ones political affiliation. Back in 2016, before the Trumps ascended to the presidency and first family, Gore met with Ivanka and Donald Trump about addressing climate change. Perhaps a familiar face will be tapped for the newest opening in Trump’s inner circle.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk, of Space X and Tesla fame has already served as an advisor to Trump following Rex Tillerson’s appointment to Secretary of State. Despite resigning from his previous role in the Trump administration due to the decision for America to pull out of the Paris Agreement, Musk has been willing to cooperate with the administration if he felt like doing so would further environmental policy. Additionally, seeing as Musk is a lobbyist and one of the most successful corporate leaders of today, picking Musk to fill in as the director of the EPA would undoubtedly keep Donald Trump’s big business contacts content. Seeing as Musk’s projects with Tesla have always been on the cutting edge of science, he would most likely be a much more fact-based director to the EPA, a clear turnaround from Pruitt’s anti-science outlook, and if it quells the masses, that might be exactly what Trump is looking for.
Eryn Wise
Wise is already a busy activist as an organizer for Honor the Earth and the media coordinator for the Sacred Stone Camp and the International Indigenous Youth Council. Eryn was one of the people who kicked off the movement against the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock, and therefore has an intimate and valuable knowledge of environmental racism, or racism that occurs by targeting specific communities of color. As a Native American woman, she also has a lot of experience with the line between environmental activism and indigenous land rights. Considering that Indigenous and Native communities have often been left out of conversations about environmental activism, specifically animal rights, having a person like Wise who can bridge the gap between communities would be immensely beneficial to the future of environmental politics.
Leeanne Walters
Best known as a mother-turned-activist from Flint, Michigan who helped expose the city’s water crisis and bring water safety to the forefront of environmental activism, Leeanne Walters is tireless, resilient, and there is no limit to what she won’t conquer. Earlier this year, Walters was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for grassroots activism. She’s now part of the Water You Fighting For? activism group. Not only have we seen how determined and resilient she can be, she has also shown that she’s more than proficient at doing research, public speaking, and getting to the bottom of stories, all important assets for a civil servant. Additionally, her story of being motivated to make change in order to protect her family could be of interest to family-focused conservatives, but Walters also carries a reputation as a rebel rouser that would distance her from some of politicians who are interested in maintaining the status quo.
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