MIKE STOKER
Region 9 Administrator
2018-2020
CONTROVERSIAL HEAD OF EPA’S SAN FRANCISCO HEADQUARTERS IS DISMISSED
February 5, 2020
In March 2019, the EPA’s Office of the Inspector General investigated a “hotline complaint” about how much time Stoker was spending away from San Francisco and “his excessive number of trips.”
The office issued a “Management Alert” that documented how he spent $43,875 in taxpayer funds on 35 separate trips between May 2018 and February 2019, including two trips to Hawaii, one to Japan and another to Saipan, in the Mariana Islands. The report, which did not reach any conclusions about the propriety of his travel, said he spent only 30 out of 145 workdays in San Francisco.
Before coming to the EPA, Stoker was a Santa Barbara County attorney and county supervisor who fought for farmers and the fossil fuel industry and led the “lock her up” chants in opposition to Hillary Clinton. He once worked at a fossil fuel company that was prosecuted by the EPA for a series of oil spills and has questioned the scientific consensus on climate change.
EPA OFFICIAL KNOWN FOR CHANTING 'LOCK HER UP' SAYS HIS BIPARTISANSHIP COST HIM
The man known for chanting "lock her up" at the 2016 Republican National Convention says he was shoved out of his EPA job Wednesday for being too bipartisan.
February 6, 2020
REGIONAL EPA CHIEF WHO FACED CRITICISM FOR EXCESSIVE TRAVEL SUDDENLY LEAVES JOB
February 6, 2020
From the get-go, elected officials and environmentalists criticized Stoker as the Trump administration’s choice to run the regulatory office. He publicly doubted the scientific consensus around man-made climate change and had previous ties to the oil and gas industry.
“Californians will not miss Mike Stoker, a climate skeptic and former oil lobbyist who spent tens of thousands of dollars on taxpayer-funded travel,” Rep. Anna Eshoo, of Palo Alto, said in an emailed statement. “My constituents and all Californians need an EPA administrator who day in and day out is dedicated to promoting clean air, clean water and addressing climate change."
EMAILS REVEAL FIRED REGIONAL CHIEF'S STORMY EXIT
June 30, 2020
Jackson had defended Stoker in the past, saying the regional administrator's many trips were part of his job in covering the branch's vast territory of Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada and the Pacific Islands. Further, in an unusual move, Jackson helped switch Stoker's "duty station" or workplace from San Francisco, where the majority of Region 9 staff works, to Los Angeles, considerably closer to Stoker's Southern California home (Greenwire, Nov. 26, 2019).