Bush Names Horinko Acting Administrator of EPA

President Bush named a new acting administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday, promoting Marianne Lamont Horinko to replace Linda Fisher.

Fisher, a former vice president of Monsanto, had been acting administrator and a former deputy administrator at the agency during her 10-year tenure. She was scheduled to leave EPA on Friday.

Bush has not yet named a permanent replacement for former EPA Administrator Christine Whitman, who resigned June 27, said an EPA spokesman.

Horinko, had been assistant administrator for Solid Waste & Emergency Response.

Bush also named Stephen Johnson as deputy administrator at EPA. Previously, Johnson served as assistant administrator of the Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances and has been at EPA for 20 years.

Before Fisher was scheduled to leave, she said that Horinko had assisted in the environmental cleanup after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York, the anthrax contamination scare in Washington and the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster.

Whitman’s successor has been widely rumored to be one of two people -- Idaho Gov. Dick Kempthorne or Tom Skinner, EPA’s Midwest administrator. His father, Sam Skinner, was transportation secretary and the chief of staff under former President George Bush.

EPA Press Secretary Lisa Harrison did not return a call for comment on the search for Whitman’s replacement.

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