A former staffer at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) who worked on radioactive waste issues has returned as a commissioner.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Monday appointed Bobby Janecka to the third spot on the commission, according to a press release. The other members are Chairman Jon Niermann and Commissioner Emily Lindley.
Commission members serve six-year terms. Janecka’s term is scheduled to expire on Aug. 31, 2025.
Janecka has since 2018 been a policy adviser for Abbott, and in May of this year became the state’s representative to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, according to his LinkedIn profile.
From September 2013 to November 2018, Janecka was the radioactive materials licensing section manager at TCEQ. He previously spent 10 months as a legislative analyst for the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts and just over two years as a staffer in the Texas House of Representatives.
Representatives for environmental organizations in Texas were largely supportive of Janecka’s appointment – even though he had served as a legislative aide for a former state lawmaker who backed 2013 legislation that enabled Waste Control Specialists to take radioactive waste from other states, the Houston Chronicle reported.
The Dallas-based company operates the disposal facility for material covered by the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact. The state is the owner and licensee for the facility, one of several disposal operations on Waste Control Specialists’ property in Andrews County, Texas. While Texas and Vermont are the only members of the compact, 34 other states are eligible to send low-level waste to the facility.
“I’ve worked with him before, and I found him to be thoughtful and well informed,” Karen Hadden, executive director of the Austin-based Sustainable Energy and Economic Development (SEED) Coalition, told the Chronicle.
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