Jim Powell on Greenwire’s shortlist for EPA job
July 29, 2009 at 7:17 pm by Thomas Wheatley in News
Jim Powell, the Democrat who last year went through hell in his campaign for Georgia Public Service Commission, is on environmental news service Greenwire’s shortlist for the Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 4 administrator job.
Region 4, Atlanta
Territory: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and six tribes.
Issues: Oversight of coal-fired power plants and coal-ash dumps. Of 44 coal-ash impoundment sites determined by the Obama administration to be high-hazard sites, 20 of them are this region. Wetlands protection is also a top issue, since the region includes Gulf Coast marshes and the Everglades.
Possible picks: Acting Region 4 Administrator Stanley Meiburg; acting Deputy Administrator Beverly Banister; Russell Wright, assistant administrator of Region 4’s Office of Policy and Management; John Hankinson, former Region 4 administrator in the Clinton administration; and Jim Powell, a former senior official with the Energy Department who retired in 2007.
Powell slogged through the state’s legal system in a residency challenge from Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel, ultimately winning in state Supreme Court. Republican Lauren “Bubba” McDonald beat Powell in a runoff to replace Angela Speir.
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
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