Former acting EPA air chief Anne Idsal Austin is a member of the Trump transition landing team at the agency — and may be leading it, according to three people granted anonymity to discuss the transition.
The Texas lawyer, who also served as a regional EPA administrator early in President-elect Donald Trump’s first term, is one of several landing team member names that have been shared with EPA career staff, said the people briefed on the agency’s transition. There’s less clarity about whether she is leading the team charged with readying EPA for Trump’s second term, which begins Jan. 20.
Austin’s name has been circulated for months now as a likely transition team member. The New York Times reported it in November — though the same article said former EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler was a member of the transition team. Wheeler has told POLITICO’S E&E News that he has no formal role.
Two people said they’d been told that Austin’s name appears on a planning document for the transition. Austin spent a year and a half as provisional head of the Office of Air and Radiation before leaving in 2021.
