The Obama administration has chosen a California official to serve in a top U.S. EPA enforcement post.

Matt Bogoshian will become deputy assistant administrator in the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance on Feb. 22, EPA said.

President Obama's pick to serve as U.S. EPA's top watchdog will likely face scrutiny from both sides of the aisle tomorrow when he testifies before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

Arthur Elkins Jr. was nominated in November to take over as EPA's inspector general and lead the independent office charged with preventing fraud, waste and abuse through audits and investigations.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is expected Wednesday to advance President Obama's choices to head federal efforts to upgrade the nation's transmission grid and bring Alaska gas south.

The panel will vote on Larry Persily to be federal coordinator for Alaska's natural gas transmission projects and Patricia Hoffman to be assistant Energy secretary for electricity delivery and energy reliability. The pair received bipartisan support at a hearing last week.

The Environment and Public Works Committee tomorrow will examine President Obama's nominees to fill three spots on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Obama nominated George Apostolakis, former chairman of the NRC Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards, and William Magwood IV, former director of the Department of Energy civilian nuclear technology program, last October to fill two open Democratic spots on the committee.

The Obama administration has four vacancies to fill on the nine-member board that oversees the Tennessee Valley Authority, and Wednesday, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will question a group of nominees that could change the identity of the federally owned utility's board.

Four of the board's five members are current or former business executives, as is Bill Sansom, a George W. Bush appointment renominated last month after his five-year term on the board ended. Sansom, a Republican and CEO of the wholesale grocery company H.T. Hackney Co., had previously said he did not expect Obama to nominate him, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported.