Senate Environment and Public Works Committee
EPA Assistant Administrator Nominations: Amanda Howe for Mission Support, David Uhlmann for Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, and Carlton Waterhouse for Land and Emergency Management
On Wednesday, August 4, at 10:00 AM ET, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works will hold a hearing on three of President Biden’s nominees to key positions at the Environmental Protection Agency.
- Amanda Howe to be Assistant Administrator for Mission Support of the Environmental Protection Agency
- David Uhlmann to be Assistant Administrator for Enforcement and Compliance Assurance of the Environmental Protection Agency
- Carlton Waterhouse to be Assistant Administrator of Land and Emergency Management of the Environmental Protection Agency
Uhlmann, nominated to be the chief enforcement officer at EPA, served for 17 years as a federal prosecutor, including seven years as chief of the Environmental Crimes Section at the U.S. Department of Justice.
At the end of the 2020 election season, Uhlmann wrote of the urgency to enact sweeping climate legislation:The United States may soon have the chance, for the first time in more than a decade, to enact urgently needed legislation to address global climate change—but only if Democrats don’t repeat the mistakes they made at the start of the Obama administration.
The top corporate-polluter law firm Hunton Andrews Kurth warned that Uhlmann’s nomination “is a very strong signal of how serious” the Biden administration’s intention to “increase environmental enforcement” is, and that “companies should prioritize review of environmental compliance and performance and remain vigilant.”
Waterhouse, a Howard University law school graduate and professor, is an “an international expert on environmental law and environmental justice, as well as reparations and redress for historic injustices.” He served as an EPA lawyer from 1991 to 2000. If confirmed, he will oversee the Superfund and related programs.