BY: DYLAN SCOTT | NATION | JANUARY 4, 2013
Outgoing Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire, a former Governing Public of the Year, will be named administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) soon, according to a report by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
The newspaper cited “a very private prediction from a very senior source in Washington’s congressional delegation.” Gregoire served as the director of the Washington Department of Ecology before being elected as Attorney General in 1992. She was elected governor in 2005.
Lisa Jackson, the EPA head during President Barack Obama’s first term, resigned on Dec. 27. Obama is expected to nominate numerous cabinet positions, including EPA administrator, next week.
Governing recognized Gregoire in 2007 as a Public Official of the Year, citing her reputation as a “negotiator-in-chief” and ability to forge compromise. One of her biggest accomplishment as director of the ecology department was reaching an agreement with the federal government in 1989 to clean up the disaster at the Hanford nuclear waste site.