April 23, 2017 Sandy Robson
Most people had heard back in January, that State Senator Doug Ericksen, was appointed by the Trump Administration to a post at the EPA’s D.C. Headquarters, on January 21, 2017.
I was recently told by someone I know that Ericksen has an office at the EPA’s Region 10 Office, located in Seattle. The individual said they had visited the Region 10 Office in late March, and they had seen an office there with Doug Ericksen’s name on the door.
On April 18, a friend sent me an April 17, 2017, report from Inside EPA (Insideepa.com)* with the latest list of new EPA headquarters employees that was obtained by Inside EPA from the agency’s Office of General Counsel. That news report is shown in an attached screenshot photo.
In the April 17 news report, it also referenced several individuals who had been on what was referred to by the Trump Administration as “the Beachhead Team.” A March 8, 2017, ProPublica article described Beachhead Team members as, “temporary employees serving for stints of four to eight months, but many are expected to move into permanent jobs.”
Toward the end of the April 17 Inside EPA news report, it mentioned Doug Ericksen, a member of the Beachhead Team, saying that he and several others were not on the list obtained from the EPA’s Office of General Council. The report used the past tense when it stated the phrase, “Doug Ericksen, who was communications director.” Exactly what that means is unclear.
After reading that news from the Inside EPA report, I called the EPA Region 10 Office on April 19, and spoke with a staff person there. I explained I had read the Inside EPA news report dated April 17, and wondered if perhaps Ericksen was possibly now working at the Region 10 Office. The staff person was unaware of that specific Inside EPA news reported, but said they are familiar with their publication.
I mentioned to the EPA staff person that I had heard from someone that Ericksen has an office at the Region 10 office. The staff person answered that they are prepared with space for him to work if he needs it. That response was unclear to me, so a couple minutes later I circled back to it, and said I had heard from someone who had visited the Region 10 Office last month, that Doug has an office there with his name on the door — so I asked if that’s the prepared space they were referring to.
The EPA staff person responded saying, yes, it was.It has not yet been confirmed whether Doug Ericksen is still officially working at EPA Headquarters in D.C., or if he is somehow officially working at the EPA Region 10 Office, or if he is no longer working at all for the EPA. I would think however, that if Senator Doug Ericksen were no longer working for the EPA, he would have issued a press release with that information since he has received a lot of criticism for working full-time hours at the EPA while still working as a state senator.
* From the Inside EPA website: “InsideEPA.com is a product of Inside Washington Publishers, which for over 30 years has provided exclusive, relevant news about the federal policymaking process to professionals who have a need to know about the process. Because of the pervasive nature of federal environmental policy, our coverage extends to state activities and international issues. Formed in 1980 with the publication of Inside EPA Weekly Report, IWP currently publishes 22 newsletters and eight online news services. It has groups of news services covering environment, defense, international trade, health care, energy and cybersecurity.”
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