W. Michael McCabe

Career

McCabe first served as a policy advisor to Gary Hart's successful 1974 Senate campaign. From 1975 to 1976, McCabe served as legislative assistant to the Senator, specializing in environmental and energy policy, including the promotion of energy efficiency and renewable energy. From 1976 to 1979, he also served as Staff Director of the bipartisan Congressional Environmental and Energy Study Conference. In 1980, McCabe organized and directed the national commemoration of the tenth anniversary of Earth Day. From 1981 to 1985, he served as Staff Director of the U.S. House of Representatives Energy Conservation and Power Subcommittee. From 1987 to 1995, McCabe was Senator Joe Biden's Communications and Projects Director serving as a senior advisor on Delaware issues.

In 1995, McCabe was appointed by President Clinton as the Regional Administrator of the EPA Middle Atlantic Region. As regional administrator, and in cooperation with governors and senior state officials, McCabe directed the implementation of federal environmental programs in the states of Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia. In 1997, he successfully levied a fine of $12.6 million against Smithfield Foods of Virginia for 6,900 violations of the Clean Water Act. The company had been found to have been discharging illegal levels of slaughterhouse waste into Virginia's Pagan River. He was nominated as Deputy Administrator of the EPA by President Clinton in 1999 and appointed to that position in 2000. He left that job on January 31, 2001, after briefly serving as Acting Administrator during the transition to the Administration of President George W. Bush.

McCabe started a consulting company, McCabe & Associates LLC, in 1996, registered in Delaware. From 2003 until at least 2006, McCabe worked as a consultant for DuPont, consulting for the company during an EPA investigation into the chemical PFOA. In 2007, Rob Bilott sued DuPont over PFOA contamination and McCabe was deposed in court by Bilott because of McCabe's previous work with DuPont.

In the fall of 2008, McCabe joined the Obama/Biden presidential transition team as leader of the group charged with identifying top environmental and energy appointments in the new administration. In 2009, McCabe was appointed by the New Jersey Superior Court to oversee the cleanup of 20 contaminated chromium sites located in low-income communities in Hudson County, New Jersey. For six years he served as independent Site Administrator for the Chromium Cleanup Partnership, a cooperative effort between the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, the government of Jersey City, and PPG, responsible for cleanup of toxic waste from a brownfield site where PPG had previously operated a chromium processing facility. His tenure in this position resulted in more than 1,000,000 tons of contaminated soil and waste being safely removed for future development. McCabe is currently the Principal at McCabe & Associates, a private consulting firm addressing energy and environmental policies based in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania.

In November 2020, McCabe was named a volunteer member of the Joe Biden presidential transition Agency Review Team to support transition efforts related to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In response to an email from The Intercept about McCabe's work for DuPont, Biden's transition team stated that McCabe has recused himself from any matters involving the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976, and was committed to not taking a role in the Biden administration. Environmental activist Erin Brockovich called on Biden to "do the right thing" by creating an EPA transition team based on science, and not from the guidance of an "industry insider."