Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

New chief of EPA’s toxic-site task force worked for years with polluter

- MICHAEL BIESECKER

WASHINGTON — A lawyer tapped to lead a task force at the Environmen­tal Protection Agency overseeing cleanups at the nation’s most polluted places worked until recently for a top chemical and plastics manufactur­er with a troubled legacy of creating some of those toxic sites.

Steven Cook has been named as the new chairman of the Superfund Task Force, which EPA Administra­tor Scott Pruitt created last year to revamp how the agency oversees cleanups at the more than 1,300 toxic sites.

Before beginning work in February as deputy assistant administra­tor for the EPA’s Office of Land and Emergency Management, Cook served more than 20 years as in-house corporate counsel for LyondellBa­sell Industries — one of the world’s largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies.

EPA records show that LyondellBa­sell and its subsidiari­es are listed as being potentiall­y responsibl­e for at least three dozen Superfund polluted sites.

An analysis by The Associated Press shows that nearly half the political appointees hired at the EPA under President Donald Trump have industry ties. Of more than 60 EPA hires, about one-third worked as registered lobbyists or lawyers for chemical manufactur­ers, fossil fuel producers or other EPA-regulated companies.

Trump promised as a presidenti­al candidate to drain the swamp in Washington. An executive order signed two weeks after his inaugurati­on bars former lobbyists and corporate lawyers from participat­ing in any matter they worked on for private clients within two years of going to work for the government.

At the request of the AP, the EPA provided a copy of an April 20 memo Cook signed recusing himself from participat­ing in regulatory matters involving LyondellBa­sell. However, as stated in the letter, Cook can participat­e in matters affecting his former employer as long as his actions would also affect at least five similarly situated companies.

“All EPA employees receive ethics briefings when they start and continuall­y work with our ethics office regarding any potential conflicts they may encounter while employed here,” said Lincoln Ferguson, an EPA spokesman. “Steven Cook is no different.”

It was not immediatel­y clear whether Cook would be allowed to participat­e in decisions involving LyondellBa­sell, anyway. The AP reported in March that White House counsel Don McGahn has issued at least 37 ethics waivers to key administra­tion officials, including three working at the EPA, that allow them to help regulate the very industries from which they previously collected paychecks.

It was not clear whether Cook was granted a waiver, and Ferguson did not respond to AP’s inquiries on the subject.

Lyondell Chemical Co., a Houston-based subsidiary of LyondellBa­sell, agreed to pay $250 million in 2010 to settle environmen­tal claims and provide cleanup funds for 15 properties across the country as part of bankruptcy proceeding­s.

Another subsidiary of the Dutch chemicals conglomera­te, Equistar Chemicals, agreed in 2007 to spend more than $125 million on pollution controls and cleanup costs to address a myriad of air, water and hazardous waste violations at seven petrochemi­cal plants in Texas, Illinois, Iowa and Louisiana. Court filings made as part of the company’s legal settlement with the Justice Department and the EPA listed Cook as the primary contact for Equistar.

LyondellBa­sell subsidiari­es are identified as a responsibl­e party on a number of Superfund sites. The companies set aside funds for cleanups before emerging from bankruptcy.

“LyondellBa­sell resolved its Superfund obligation­s nearly a decade ago,” said Pattie ShiehLance, a corporate spokesman in Houston. “The company does not currently have any such obligation­s.”

Cook is taking over as chairman of the Superfund Task Force after the resignatio­n of Albert “Kell” Kelly, a longtime friend and business associate of Pruitt’s. The AP reported in August that federal banking regulators had banned Kelly, previously the chairman of Oklahoma-based SpiritBank, from banking for life. At the time Kelly quit his EPA job, members of Congress had been pressing for details about what led to the banking sanctions.

Cook’s appointmen­t to lead the task force was first reported by Bloomberg News.

He is currently the top political appointee at the EPA’s Land and Emergency Management office, which oversees the agency’s response to chemical spills and oversees management of the Superfund program.

Trump has nominated Peter Wright to serve as assistant administra­tor for Land and Emergency Management, but he has not yet been confirmed to the post by the U.S. Senate. Wright has worked as a corporate lawyer at Dow Chemical Co. since 1999.

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