{"id":43572,"date":"2021-11-22T17:22:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-23T00:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/kc-becker-former-colorado-house-speaker-appointed-to-lead-regional-epa-office\/"},"modified":"2021-11-23T00:22:00","modified_gmt":"2021-11-23T00:22:00","slug":"kc-becker-former-colorado-house-speaker-appointed-to-lead-regional-epa-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/kc-becker-former-colorado-house-speaker-appointed-to-lead-regional-epa-office\/","title":{"rendered":"KC Becker, former Colorado House speaker, appointed to lead regional EPA office"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Colorado
Colorado Speaker of the House KC Becker, D-Boulder, makes a point in March 2019 during a rally inside the State Capitol in support of lawmakers\u2019 plan to advance a bill to overhaul the state\u2019s oil and gas regulations. (David Zalubowski \/ Associated Press file)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

KC Becker, the former speaker of the Colorado House, has been appointed by President Joe Biden to serve as the regional head of the Environmental Protection Agency, the White House announced Thursday.<\/p>\n

Becker will be the Region 8 administrator, a position based in Denver.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith her background on critical climate change and environmental justice issues, KC is an excellent choice to lead our Region 8 team,\u201d EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan said in a written statement. \u201cShe is experienced in stakeholder engagement and will ensure voices from throughout the region are heard on key issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Becker, who lives in Boulder, served four terms in the Colorado Legislature, spending her last two years in the House as speaker. Her term ended in January.<\/p>\n

The Democrat was a prime sponsor of Senate Bill 181 in 2019, a measure that rewrote Colorado\u2019s oil and gas regulations. The legislation was panned by the industry and Republicans as being too restrictive and killing jobs. Becker and other supporters, including Gov. Jared Polis, said the bill protects the environment and public safety by putting badly needed safeguards in place and giving more regulatory control to local governments.<\/p>\n

Before entering politics, Becker worked for the Interior Department, where she practiced administrative and natural resources law.<\/p>\n

In a written statement released by the EPA, Becker said she was \u201cso honored.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe aggressive and critical agenda that President Biden and Administrator Regan have announced to address climate change, repair aging water infrastructure and drive down methane emissions requires an \u2018all hands on deck\u2019 approach,\u201d Becker said in the statement. \u201cI am ready to use my experience to help states, tribal governments, businesses and communities in Region 8 implement these important pieces of the Biden agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese regional appointees will be critical to the president\u2019s efforts to rebuild communities most impacted by the pandemic, the economic recovery and climate change,\u201d the White House said in a written statement. \u201cThey bring deep expertise in their issue areas as well as critical relationships with federal, state, tribal and local leaders. And, consistent with the president\u2019s commitment to building an administration that looks like America, these regional appointees represent the diversity of America and the communities they serve.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to Colorado, Becker will oversee the EPA\u2019s work in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming and 28 Tribal Nations.<\/p>\n

The Region 8 administrator position can be a stepping stone to senior leadership positions at the EPA. Under President Donald Trump, Doug Benevento went from holding the job to being the agency\u2019s No. 2 leader.<\/p>\n

Biden on Thursday also appointed Armando Valdez to be state director of rural development. Valdez is an assistant professor of management and the director of the Health Care Administration Program in the School of Business at Adams State University in Alamosa.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Kent Peppler, a farmer in Mead, was appointed to lead the Farm Service Agency in Colorado.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democrat was a prime sponsor of Senate Bill 181 in 2019, a measure that rewrote Colorado\u2019s oil and gas regulations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[233,739,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-43572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coloradosun-com","tag-environmental-protection-agency","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43572"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=43572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}