Who is Thomas Skinner
Top U.S. EPA Official Thomas Skinner Joins Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw |
| 11 April 2006,
Chicago -- The international law firm Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP
is pleased to announce the addition of Thomas V. Skinner, who has served
as head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's national
compliance program and director of the EPA's Region 5. Mr. Skinner will
officially join on April 15th as a partner. During his tenure at the EPA, Mr. Skinner led the agency's 3,400 employee, $300 million budget national compliance program and had broad responsibility for ensuring compliance with federal law working with businesses, the U.S. Department of Justice and other federal agencies, state and local governments, public interest groups and Congress. As head of USEPA Region 5, his responsibilities also included the implementation of federal environmental programs in the Great Lakes states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin. "Tom is nationally recognized as an outstanding lawyer with extensive experience in environmental compliance, regulatory, civil and criminal enforcement matters on the federal and state levels," said John Berghoff, Mayer Brown's Environmental Law Practice Group Leader. "His first-hand experience with the USEPA and Illinois EPA will be of enormous value to our corporate, real estate and finance clients. He brings to us a unique perspective of current environmental enforcement initiatives and the inner workings of the regulatory process." Nominated by the President, Mr. Skinner led the EPA to record results as head of the enforcement and compliance program for the past two years. One of his additional roles included serving as the Great Lakes National Program Manager and the U.S. chairman of the Binational Executive Committee for the Great Lakes, which is the main forum for United States-Canadian discussion of Great Lakes issues. Commenting on joining the firm, Mr. Skinner said: "Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw is one of the world's top international law firms, and is one of a handful of firms with top-notch full service environmental practices including a depth in both regulatory and litigation experience." At Mayer, Brown, Mr. Skinner will be advising clients on a wide range of issues relating to environmental regulatory initiatives and enforcement. Based in the Chicago office, he will also work out of the Washington and Los Angeles offices. Mr. Skinner is the second leading environmental partner to join the firm in 2006. In March, Cynthia Burch, who has conducted approximately 200 administrative hearings and numerous public meetings before U.S. EPA and California state, regional and local governmental agencies, joined the Los Angeles office from Munger, Tolles & Olson. Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw's environmental practice area is one of the premier environmental law groups in the world focusing on litigation, transactions, and compliance matters. The group, operating out of US cities and European cities, has won plaudits from the major legal directories both in the US and Europe. Its growth has been fueled by its many successes in all fields of environmental law, and across several jurisdictions from victories in the courtroom and before administrative tribunals to helping clients avoid or manage every kind of environmental issue. Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw is among the largest law practices in the world with more than 1,400 lawyers practicing in seven U.S. cities and six European cities. |
Source: http://www.mayerbrownrowe.com/london/news/article.asp?id=2670&nid=366
Source: http://www.epa.gov/oig/reports/2004/20040622-2004-P-00021.pdf
Memo Reaffirms Commitment to Cost Recovery
On April 5, the management of the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, and the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division sent a memo to the Regional directors reaffirming EPA and DOJ’s commitment to cost recovery. The memo was signed by
OECA Acting Assistant Administrator Thomas Skinner, OSWER Deputy Assistant Administrator Thomas Dunne, and DOJ ENRD Assistant Attorney General Thomas Sansonetti. The memo asserts that cost recovery provides money to the Superfund Trust Fund for use at other sites and reinforces EPA’s “Enforcement First” strategy which encourages potentially responsible parties (PRPs) to perform the work at Superfund sites. Recovering costs when PRPs have been identified is also a stated goal of CERCLA. The memo stressed efficiency in cost recovery and encouraged the Regions to focus on cases with past costs over $200,000.
A Superfund 120-Day Study requested by Acting Deputy Administrator Stephen Johnson in 2004 suggested that senior management in EPA and DOJ “affirm their commitment to cost recovery.”
Source: http://cc.msnscache.com/cache.aspx?q=3113352303534&lang=en-US
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http://yahoo.brand.edgar-online.com/PeopleFilingResults.aspx?PersonID=2585570
Thomas Skinner named EPA assistant administrator for enforcementPhyllis Harris, the current acting administrator, will remain as the deputy assistant administrator.
"Tom´s expertise will add strength to our work to motivate compliance by applying consistent and certain enforcement," Administrator Michael Leavitt said in announcing the appointment.
Skinner heads the EPA´s Region 5 Office in Chicago, and Bharat Mathur, the current deputy regional administrator, will take over for Skinner on an acting basis while Skinner is working with the agency´s headquarters.
Source: http://www.wastenews.com/headlines2.html?id=1081198877
Release date: 04/05/2004
Contact Information:
| November 19, 2004 | Back Issues | « previous | next » |
Earlier this week the Environmental Protection Agency released its annual report, which asserted that EPA enforcement during the past fiscal year would reduce pollution in America's air, land and water by one billion pounds. The report also stated that EPA sent 265 cases forward for action by the Justice Department, compared with 250 in the final year of the Clinton administration.
"The baloney about EPA abandoning enforcement is just that, baloney," said EPA enforcement head Thomas Skinner in an interview with the New York Times. [1]
But the EPA report was quickly challenged by Eric Schaeffer, director of the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP). A former top enforcement official at EPA, Schaeffer resigned three years ago in protest of what he said was EPA's weakening enforcement of the Clean Air Act and other laws.
"EPA's beleaguered enforcement staff should be congratulated for what they manage to accomplish despite the political handcuffs they are forced to wear under the Bush administration," Schaeffer said in a statement. The EPA report, he said, "suggests that efforts to weaken environmental enforcement are beginning to take their toll." [2]
Among other things, the EIP statement said that although cases are being referred to the Justice Department, many are not being brought to closure. For the first time, it said, the EPA annunual report did not include the number of judicial cases actually settled.
"And no wonder," said Schaeffer. "The agency's online data base shows that the Justice Department was able to conclude fewer than 160 enforcement actions in 2004, the lowest by far in the 10 years such data has been tracked." Schaeffer said Justice averaged over 230 settlements during each of the last six years of the Clinton administration.
On another front, EIP stated that civil penalties for enforcement of the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, and others, dropped to $57 million--the lowest in the 15 years of recorded data. EIP also pointed out that of the $4.8 billion EPA claimed was won via injunctive relief, over three-quarters came as the result of just two cases.
One of those, in which the city of Los Angeles will spend $2 billion to clean up sewer systems, was actually filed before the Bush administration took office, "and was settled," said Schaeffer, "only after the judge threw the book at the city." The number of complaints filed by the Justice Department, said Schaeffer, has declined 75% over the past three years.
Source: http://www.bushgreenwatch.org/mt_archives/000220.php
