Former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Wiliam 'Bill' Ruckelshaus endorsed Senater Barack Obama today. Ruckelshaus is from Indiana and hopes to influence voters in next weeks primary. Ruckelshaus became the EPA's first administrator when the agency was formed in December 1970. He was nominated to the position by President Richard Nixon, pictured at left, with Ruckelshaus at the swearing-in.
He conducted a three-month hearing on DDT and instituted a ban on pesticide. The EPA activity and ban were came as a result of heightened fears about pesticides that was featured in Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. Unfortunately, the hysteria created by the book and EPA's action led to an international ban on its use, which could help in preventing millions of deaths in African countries suffering and dying from the malaria parasite carried in mosquitos.
William Doyle Ruckelshaus served as the EPA Administrator from December 1970 to April 1973. He left EPA in 1973 to serve as Acting FBI Director, during the Nixon Administration's cabinet openings during the Watergate scandal, then served briefly as Deputy Attorney General at the Justice Department. The official birthday of EPA is December 2, 1970.
No comments:
Post a Comment