Maine Environmental Groups Applaud Committee Vote on EPA Administrator Nominee Gina McCarthy, Call for Sens. Collins and King to Back EPA Nominee

Environment Maine

Augusta, Maine – Today, a majority of Senators on the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee voted to send EPA Nominee Gina McCarthy’s nomination to the floor of the Senate. In response, Maine’s major environmental organizations today applauded the vote and called on Senators Susan Collins and Angus King to publicly endorse Gina McCarthy to be the next EPA Administrator.
 
“We are pleased that the full Senate will now get to take up Gina McCarthy’s nomination to head EPA,” said Lisa Pohlmann, executive director of the Natural Resources Council of Maine. “We strongly urge Maine Senators Susan Collins and Angus King to follow in the long tradition of Maine senators by voting for clean air and publicly endorsing McCarthy’s nomination.”
 
“Now, the Senate should move quickly and in a bipartisan fashion to approve this highly-qualified nominee who has broad bipartisan support,” said Environment Maine Director Emily Figdor.
 
“Gina McCarthy’s decades of public service experience and a reputation for working with all stakeholders to find pragmatic solutions to public health and environmental issues, make her a clear choice to lead the EPA,” said Glen Brand, Sierra Club Maine Director.
 
McCarthy has worked for five Republican Governors, including Jodi Rell of Connecticut and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, before joining the Obama administration as the head of the clean air division.  She has answered more than 1,000 questions from committee Republicans during the confirmation process.
 
McCarthy most recently led the EPA’s development of historic clean air protections, including the first ever proposed carbon pollution standards for new power plants, the first carbon limits for vehicles, and lifesaving updates of standards that limit deadly soot, mercury and other toxic pollution.
 
The Senate easily confirmed McCarthy by a voice vote in 2009 to head the clean air division of EPA.