The Trump administration’s controversial pick to lead the EPA’s chemical safety office withdrew from consideration Wednesday night after it became apparent that his confirmation would likely die in the Senate. Michael Dourson has been drawing ire from the environmental community since he squeaked through his Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on October. (In that hearing, Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) told Dourson, "You're not just an outlier on this science, you're outrageous in how far from the mainstream of science you actually are. It's pretty clear you have never met a chemical you didn't like.")
Dourson would’ve been the first Trump nominee not to be confirmed by the Senate, but after multiple GOP senators voiced public concerns about his qualifications and ties to the companies he would be regulating it was clear he wouldn’t make it through. (Not that having conflicts of interest or being completely unqualified have stopped confirmations in the past). Green groups were quick to applaud the decision, and the administration is back to the drawing board.
Meanwhile, the administration’s pick to run a federal coal mine regulator has conflicts of his own, ProPublica reports. Kentucky-native Steve Gardner, who spent decades as a coal company consultant, is due to have a confirmation hearing in the next few weeks to lead the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE). Turns out, Gardner’s engineering firm worked with OSMRE in the past, and the agency cut ties with Gardner after he produced a report they called “nonsensical,” “junk,” “inaccurate and incomplete,” and “a piece of crap.”
Gardner’s company was one of several firms hired to consult on the Stream Protection Rule, but Gardner’s work was not up to snuff. Some OSMRE employees said Gardner seemed to be intentionally trying to intentionally undermine the Stream Protection Rule to benefit coal. The dispute spilled out into public fora including congressional hearings, and the Department of Interior, which oversees OSMRE, eventually chastised both parties. According to ProPublica, Gardner “continued to denounce OSMRE and the Stream Protection Rule in lectures, on his Facebook page and in newspaper op-eds” years after the dispute.
And now he’s up to lead the agency he disparaged for years. If confirmed, we’d bet the morale at OSMRE under Gardner will be about as high as it at the EPA under Scott “sued the EPA 10 times” Pruitt. But maybe Gardner will go the way of Dourson and get dropped by the Senate for being a “junk” candidate.