DEC’S Seggos in running for EPA
Cuomo official called unifier, well-qualified
New Yorkers of all stripes were lining up behind state Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos on Tuesday amid news that he’s on a short list of those who Presidentelect Joe Biden is considering to lead the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
“Seggos is a unifier with experience to offer EPA from his time in New York and the Army,” tweeted actor and anti-fracking activist Mark Ruffalo, who had periodically come to the state Capitol to successfully argue against allowing hydrofracking in the state.
Seggos joined the Andrew Cuomo administration in 2012 and was a top environmental adviser to Cuomo when the governor preemptively banned hydrofracking in New York. Cuomo later appointed him DEC commissioner.
“Basil Seggos has been a strong, effective, pragmatic leader. He would be a great pick for EPA,” agreed Mike Elmendorf, CEO of Associated General Contractors of NY, a construction trade group that is not always aligned with anti-frackers or environmentalists.
Mostly, his supporters say Seggos offers the complete package: administrative and on-the-ground experience, willingness to support ambitious decarbonization efforts and an understanding of the growing environmental justice movement.
“When it comes to looking at the existing portfolio of leaders who right now are out there on the stage, when you’re looking at someone who has a relationship with front-line communities, Basil Seggos has it all,” said Aaron Mair, a longtime Albany environmentalists who has also served as the Sierra Club’s national president and was an early national supporter of climate change initiatives.
Since taking over at DEC in 2015, Seggos is credited with moving the state’s greenhouse gas initiatives forward while working to bring in different views. The state is implementing mandates of the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act which calls for sharp cuts in carbon emissions by adopting more solar, wind and other green forms of energy.
Seggos has also shown a willingness to take on the federal government, as evidenced by his fight to get the Trump administration’s EPA to keep cleaning the Hudson River of PCBS, a job the agency basically said was completed.
He also worked on a $3 billion clean water infrastructure initiative in New York — one reason that trade groups like as well as labor unions like the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades also support him.
His tenure hasn’t been without controversy. He ran afoul of the Lake George community several years ago when he tried but ultimately backed down on an effort, said to be at Cuomo’s behest, to fire David Wick, the Lake George Park Commission director, who had been pushing relentlessly for more funding.
And DEC under Seggos remains in court with Protect the Adirondacks which has sued over the agency’s tree-cutting for snowmobile trails in the Adirondack Park. But as EPA administrator, Seggos would deal more with water and air pollution issues than land use. And even some park wilderness advocates support him.
“He is eminently qualified,” David Gibson, managing partner of Adirondack Wild said in an email.
The New York Times Monday reported that Seggos was under consideration as another candidate, Mary Nichols was faltering in her quest for the job amid criticism by groups pursuing environmental justice goals. Specifically, 70 organizations said she had put together a greenhouse gas capand-trade program in California that critics say still lets industries emit too much pollution in poor neighborhoods if they are willing to buy pollution credits.
Seggos has a track record of working on environmental justice issues, Mair noted.
He helped lead the charge from New York to assist in recovery efforts after Hurricane Maria destroyed much of Puerto Rico’s infrastructure in 2017. Mair also recalled Seggos’ work to help prevent oil filled tanker cars from coming to and backing up near the Port of Albany, which is next door to a large subsidized housing complex with largely poor, minority residents.
Seggos is credited with setting aside water infrastructure funds for disadvantaged communities.
“When you talk about justice from the reaction and recognition and needs of front-line communities, none of the other candidates have that skill on the ground,” said Mair.
Other candidates to lead the EPA, according to numerous reports, include Michael Regan, secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality; New York University law Professor Richard Revesz, an expert in climate change laws; Collin O’mara, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation and Heather Mcteer Toney, senior director with Moms Clean Air Force. Biden is also said to be looking at former EPA head in the Obama administration, Gina McCarthy.
Seggos is an officer in the Army Reserves and an attorney. He has previously worked for Riverkeeper, which advocates for the Hudson River, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Council on Environmental Quality in the White House.
Prior to working at the state he was vice president of business development at the Hugo Neu Corp., a private equity company that invests in recycling and sustainable industries.