WASHINGTON (August 29, 2018)—William K. Reilly, a former administrator of the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has joined the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) board of directors.
“It is an honor to have this widely-respected statesman on our board,” said Anne Kapuscinski, UCS board chair. “He has spent a lifetime essentially performing this organization’s mission—using science in policymaking to solve the country’s most pressing problems. He has served republican and democratic administrations alike. His allegiance is to facts and serving the American people, not politics.”
“With Bill Reilly on our team, UCS will have an enhanced ability to forge solutions that can gain support across the political divide,” said Ken Kimmell, UCS president.
Mr. Reilly was EPA administrator from 1989 to 1993, during which time he led efforts to pass a new Clean Air Act and make pollution prevention a priority, negotiating voluntary agreements with industry to reduce toxic emissions and promote energy conservation.
He has served under four U.S. presidents. In addition to his service as EPA administrator under President George H. W. Bush, from 1970-1972 he was a senior staff member at the White House Council on Environmental Quality under President Richard Nixon. President Bill Clinton appointed him as a founding Trustee of the Presidio Trust of San Francisco. He was appointed co-chair of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and the Future of Offshore Drilling and to the President’s Global Development Council by President Barack Obama.
“I am proud to join this organization as it approaches its 50th anniversary,” said Mr. Reilly. “I worked with UCS for many years when I served in government. It was then, and remains now, one of the most respected and effective organizations, and one that puts science first. I believe strongly that sound science must ground environmental policy and view with great concern the dismissal of scientists and scientific method from federal government decision making. UCS has an important role in supporting the restoration of science at a time when it is disregarded, threatened and even mocked.”
Mr. Reilly has not been hesitant to express his views, based on decades of government service, including voicing opposition to the White House’s plans to dismantle federal vehicle standards and the Clean Power Plan.