The Trump presidential term has appointed yet another industriousness insider as a leading governor , this meter tap the former lawyer for a plastics and chemicals company to conduct the Environmental Protection Agency ’s undertaking military group specializing in contaminated land site cleanups .
Steven Cook , who spend 20 years as the in - house corporate counsel for plastics and chemicals giant LyondellBasell Industries , was latterly named the head of the EPA ’s Superfund Task Force , the Associated Press reported . He ’ll now be in charge of how the EPA approaches cleaning up more than grand of toxic sites — some of which his former employer is responsible for for creating .
According to the AP , LyondellBasell Industries and its subsidiaries were lean in EPA records as being “ potentially creditworthy ” for more than three dozenSuperfund internet site — an area of land that has been so pollute by wild wastefulness that is deemed to be a risk to human health and the environment — while Cook was at the company .
During Cook ’s time with the company , LyondellBasell settled a number of major kick made against it for environmental violations :
LyondellBasell ’s Houston - establish subsidiary , Lyondell Chemical , agreed to a$250 million settlementin 2010 to decide a mounting number of environmental claim and liability made against the company by state governments . The subsidiary set up two trusts to fund the cleanup of wastefulness sites in Pennsylvania , California , and other states .
Another subsidiary , Equistar Chemicals , concord topay out $ 125 millionto underwrite the cost of pollution controls and cleanup that resulted from the countless air travel , water supply , and hazardous waste violations that occurred at seven different petrochemical plant locate in Texas , Illinois , Iowa , and Louisiana . Cook was listed as the primary contact for Equistar Chemicals in court filings , per the AP .
Cook — who get together the EPA in February as the deputy assistant decision maker for representation ’s Office of Land and Emergency Management — recuse himself from participating in any regulatory matter touch to LyondellBasell . But he ’s still grant to make phone call on publication impact his former employer if it would impact at least five other companies .
It ’s also worth note that there have been three ethic waivers pass on out to EPA officials ( and 37 officials throughout the governing ) that allow them to regulate the industries they once worked in . It ’s not clear if Cook is one of those officials , or if he will go after a discharge in his Modern position .
“ All EPA employees encounter ethic briefings when they start and continually work with our ethics office regarding any potential conflict they may encounter while employed here , ” an EPA spokespersontold the AP . “ Steven Cook is no unlike . ”
The optimistic interpretation here is that Cook will use his experience and knowledge of mete out with industry to rectify the EPA and make it run more effectively and efficiently . ( break for laughter . ) Let ’s be existent though , that ’s not what is going to happen .
Cook is just the latest is a longsighted line of industry insiders to be place in position to regulate those very industry . The problem is specially rife in the EPA.According to the AP , intimately one-half of the political appointee hired to the bureau under Trump have industry link , including one - third of which who have worked as lobbyist or lawyer for chemical companies and dodo fuel producers .
Do n’t occupy though , the approach is n’t just limited to the EPA . Just last calendar month , the Trump administrationnamed a lawyerwho make up Equifax , Facebook , and Uber to be the head of the Federal Trade Commission ’s consumer protection social unit . The Chief Executive has tap a lawyer for fiscal institution tohead upthe Securities and Exchange Commission , a pharmaceutical investor toleadthe Food and Drug Administration — you get the thought . Any meter a fresh official is named to a regulative position in this organisation , just take over they ’ve spent the bulk of their careers undermining it .
[ Associated Press ]
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