In the administration of Donald Trump, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), under the leadership of National Administrator Scott Pruitt, has become the Environmental Polluters Agency.  In an administration replete with ethical and policy misgovernance, Scott Pruitt may be the worst disgrace of all.  Since the EPA was established during the administration of Richard Nixon in 1970, polluters have had no better friend, and sound science has had no worse enemy than Scott Pruitt.  

Under Pruitt’s leadership, EPA has overwhelmingly reduced its enforcement activity.  Unless state environmental agencies step up to the plate and vigorously enforce laws protecting our air, land, and water, America will be faced with an unprecedented environmental crisis that threatens both our quality of life and public health.  

In appointing Catherine McCabe as Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), Governor-elect Phil Murphy has nominated an individual supremely well suited to the task of providing maximum environmental protection for New Jersey in the era of Trump/Pruitt environmental protection default.

I make the preceding statement with firsthand knowledge of Catherine McCabe.  She and I served simultaneously at EPA from 2005 to 2009 during the administration of George W. Bush.  During those years, Catherine served as EPA Deputy Assistant Administrator of the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA), while I served as Region 2 EPA Administrator.  For over two decades prior to that, she served in the Environmental Enforcement Section of the U.S.Department of Justice.  

Having observed her first hand, I can make the following observations without reservation or equivocation.

Catherine McCabe is supremely competent, both as an attorney and as an environmental policymaker.  

Catherine McCabe is totally committed to environmental protection, and her guiding principle in formulating environmental policy and enforcement decisions will be sound science.  And she will not have any political agenda affecting her decision making process.  

Yet above all, Catherine McCabe will be an NJDEP Commissioner of total fairness and openness.  She will be willing to listen to all stakeholders in the process, including both developers and environmentalists.  She will be respectful to all those who come before her.  And nobody will ever have grounds to complain of unfairness or bias on her part.

There is also one recurring NJDEP issue that Catherine McCabe is ideally situated to handle: the status of its Superfund branch.  

From time to time in the past, the NJDEP Superfund branch has been inadequately staffed, not with regard to the competency of its officials but in terms of the number of individuals available to serve as site managers and remediation supervisors.  Catherine McCabe’s performance at EPA was distinguished by her work with Superfund, and I have no doubt that at NJDEP, Superfund will be one of her top priorities.  

I have seen both positive and negative aspects of Phil Murphy’s front office and Cabinet appointments.  Regardless of the degree of ultimate success achieved by his administration, I have no doubt that Catherine McCabe will emerge as one of the most successful Commissioners in the history of the NJDEP.

Alan J. Steinberg served as Regional Administrator of Region 2 EPA during the administration of former President George W. Bush and as Executive Director of the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission under former New Jersey Governor Christie Whitman.