Comes news that Dr. Al Armendariz, an SMU prof in the the Lyle School of Engineering has been named the Environmental Protection Agency’s new regional administrator. Armendariz has been an outspoken critic of federal and state regulators for not doing enough to clean up North Texas’ air. Jim Schermbeck sends along the official statement from Downwinders at Risk, the group that has long battled the Midlothian cement plants:
Dr. Armendariz is exactly the kind of person you’d want to have this job, but seemingly never gets it. Because of what’s at stake and the fact that Texas is the belly of the polluter beast, this may be one of the most important, far-reaching appointments the Obama Administration makes. Downwinders at Risk is proud to have been the group that first utilized Dr. Armendariz’s expertise in 2005 for our cause of cleaning up the Midlothian cement kilns. That work led directly to his becoming the premier “citizen’s scientist” in Texas on air pollution, and paved the way for his much larger influence on the state scene. Congratulations to both Dr. Armendariz and the EPA.
Congrats, too, to SMU. Armendariz will keep his faculty appointment while serving at the EPA.
