President Trump has selected people with significant ties to oil and other industries for key posts at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Interior Department, according to the congressional record.
Among them is Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Energy Alliance, a group that lobbies on behalf of the oil and gas industry. Sgamma, who will lead the Bureau of Land Management, has frequently spoken with journalists and appeared before Congress to promote the industry.
Sgamma co-wrote the chapter of Project 2025, the sprawling blueprint for governance under the next Republican president, concerning the Interior Department. Those plans, she told The Hill last year, are “all about increasing [oil and gas] development and production from federal lands.”
Trump disavowed Project 2025 on the campaign trail but Sgamma is one of several of its authors he has named to positions, including one of its lead architects, White House Budget Director Russell Vought.
At the EPA, Trump has named Aaron Szabo to lead the agency’s office of Air and Radiation. Szabo has lobbied on behalf of the sterilization industry on issues related to its use of the toxic chemical ethylene oxide. In addition, Szabo has lobbied for a company called Chemours, which spun off from chemical giant DuPont and carried on its production of toxic “forever chemicals.”
Trump selected Jessica Kramer to lead the EPA’s water office. Kramer has lobbied on behalf of water utility trade organizations, as well as oil and gas company Talos Energy, utility Duke Energy and LG Chem.
The White House also nominated Sean Donahue, the EPA’s current principal deputy general counsel, as the agency’s assistant administrator. Donahue has previously served in the agency’s Office of Land and Emergency Management.
Audrey Robertson, of the oil and gas company Franklin Mountain Energy, will lead the Energy Department’s energy efficiency and renewable energy office. Robertson is also on the board of directors of Liberty Energy, where Energy Secretary Chris Wright was CEO.
Trump also named former Wyoming Game and Fish Director Brian Nesvik to head the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Nesvik is a veteran of the Wyoming National Guard and the latest in a long line of nominees with roots in the western U.S.
Ned Maluma, of the mineral industry company GreenMet, will lead the U.S. Geological Survey, which researches energy, ecosystems, land and minerals.
The White House has also nominated Wayne Palmer, who served as deputy assistant secretary in the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) in his first term, to lead the agency.
