One of the members of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) on Monday moved over to serve as the agency’s new executive director. He was quickly replaced on the commission by a former TCEQ staffer and short-term U.S. Environmental Protection Agency employee.
The state agency, with nearly 3,000 employees overseen by three commissioners, regulates management of nuclear waste in Texas. That includes the Waste Control Specialists complex in Andrews County, one of four active facilities licensed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for disposal of low-level radioactive waste.
Toby Baker joined the commission in April 2012, appointed by then-Gov. Rick Perry, now U.S. energy secretary. Baker became TCEQ executive director at 1 p.m. Monday. He succeeds Richard Hyde, who retired at the end of March, according to a press release from the agency.
Before becoming a full-time environmental commissioner, Baker served Perry as a policy adviser for energy, natural resources, and agricultural matters, his TCEQ biography says. He previously was a policy adviser on natural resources for state Sen. Craig Estes (R) and a staffer for the Texas Senate Agriculture, Rural Affairs, and Coastal Resources subcommittee.
Replacing Baker on the commission is Emily Lindley, who since April has been chief of staff to Anne Idsal, the EPA’s administrator for Region 6, which covers Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and 66 Native American tribes. Lindley spent over a decade in a number of positions at TCEQ, last as special assistant to Deputy Executive Director Stephanie Bergeron Perdue.
The other commissioners are Bryan Shaw and Jon Niermann.
The commission on Oct. 17 is expected to decide on adoption of a rules package that would reduce a number of charges for disposal of low-level radioactive waste at the Waste Control Specialists facility.
