DOJ Picks New Environmental Protection Director

Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel has picked a new director for the state Department of Justice’s Environmental Protection Unit.

Schimel chose Assistant Attorney General Anna J. Wildeman to head the unit. Before she joined the DOJ in 2016 she served as an environmental attorney for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C.

She replaces David P. Ross, whom President Donald Trump appointed as assistant administrator in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Water.

Democratic legislators have criticized Schimel for not levying more fines against polluters. DOJ fines against polluters dropped to their lowest point in 2015 since at least 1994.

Schimel has countered that he has leveraged concessions from polluters that will make the state cleaner.