President Donald Trump has tapped Dale Marks, an Air Force veteran and longtime Defense Department manager, to head up the Pentagon’s energy and environment portfolio.
Marks was nominated to be assistant secretary of Defense for energy, installations and environment — a post that includes overseeing the sprawling contamination from toxic “forever chemicals” at hundreds of installations around the country.
Marks is currently executive director of the 96th Test Wing at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, a job that includes managing all operating support and infrastructure for the service’s largest installation. The base also has high levels of PFAS contamination in groundwater.
Under the Biden and Obama administrations, the energy, environment and installations office was also the nexus of work to reduce the Defense Department’s reliance on fossil fuels, install solar panels and other alternative energy technologies on military lands and plan for the effects of climate change on military readiness. Some DOD webpages on climate change have been taken down in recent days.
