The Senate Thursday confirmed Gina McCarthy to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), ending a four-month long stalemate between Republicans and Democrats over her nomination.

By a vote of 59-40, the McCarthy’s nomination cleared the upper chamber, where it had been languishing for 154 days. The Senate’s confirmation came shortly after it had invoked cloture to limit debate on McCarthy’s nomination. McCarthy’s nomination had been in limbo since March when President Obama announced his intent to nominate her. EPA has been headed by Acting Administrator Bob Perciasepe in the interim.

“This is a day I’ve longed for for a long time,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Thursday, referring to the Senate vote on McCarthy. “This is the longest time [that] EPA has been without an administrator,” she said.

Senate Republicans opposed McCarthy’s nomination from the start due to her role in drafting regulations affecting the energy industry. Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana, the ranking Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and one of her main critics, led a Republican boycott of the committee’s vote on McCarthy in May (see Daily GPI, May 10). Vitter said Republicans took the action because McCarthy provided “unresponsive” answers to his party’s questions related to agency transparency.

Vitter said the EPA last week responded to his transparency requests and that he had reversed his position and would support the nomination (see Daily GPI, July 11).

Speaking on the Senate floor Wednesday, Vitter said, “When this important nomination first came up, I focused on these transparency issues…I think this is a crucial issue.” EPA is led by ideology, not sober, sound science, he said, and McCarthy has been at the center of the debate over the agency’s “draconian rules” governing the energy industry.

“Over many months I went back and forth with Ms. McCarthy,” and as a result was able to “secure substantial commitments” with respect to transparency, he said.

McCarthy is the last of the Obama administration’s three energy-related appointments waiting to be approved by the Senate. The Senate confirmed Sally Jewell as secretary of the Interior Department in mid-April, and Ernest Moniz as secretary of the Department of Energy the following month (see Daily GPI, April 11; May 17).

McCarthy will replace Lisa Jackson, who resigned from the EPA in December (see Daily GPI, Dec. 28, 2012). She currently serves as assistant administrator in EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation, where she played a key role in the agency’s efforts under Jackson to eliminate harmful air pollution from oil and natural gas production (see Daily GPI, April 19, 2012; July 29, 2011).

Dave McCurdy, president of the American Gas Association, expressed his support for McCarthy. “Gina McCarthy and I have a constructive working relationship based on open and honest dialogue that will continue as we work towards the shared goal of improving the data available on the environmental impact of natural gas,” he said.

“Recent EPA estimates of greenhouse gas emissions from the well to natural gas customers’ homes and businesses have been dramatically reduced and America’s natural gas utilities are committed to continuing to lower them further. We look forward to working with [McCarthy] and her staff on that effort.”

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