Join Scott Pitney as he interviews special guest, Eric Eidsness, author of the upcoming book, Gorilla in The Closet: Why the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is becoming obsolete and its future after Trump, an early history of the EPA and his memoir. You can learn more at www.gorillainthecloset.com. This book explains why EPA should be abolished in its current form and replaced through legislation by a truly independent commission run by professionals who serve a term of 10 years, like the FBI’s top people.
Eric obtained his engineering degree Vanderbilt University 1967, was drafted out of the Peace Corps and served as a commissioned officer in United States Navy in the Riverine forces of Vietnam 1968-69 with a following service at Naval Station Treasure Island. He joined the Water Quality Administration in Atlanta in fall of 1970 which became the core of the newly formed EPA on December 2, 1970. Eric wrote EPA’s first environmental impact statement but left in 1973 owning to disenchantment over lack of management controls as to who speaks for EPA. He returned a decade later as a Ronald Reagan-Appointed Assistant Administrator for Water where he had policy, budget and management sway over three laws, the Federal Clean Water Act, the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act. He continued his service during the controversial Sewergate era (1981-1983), where the coordinated environmental lobby accused them of backing away from environmental laws as a means of weakening the President for the 1984 presidential election. He then returned to the private sector in the environmental engineering and construction industry and ran for Congress on the Reform Party Ticket, earning 11.3% of the vote. Eric started his book in 2010, and it will be published this fall.
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