DEQ Secretary Biser steps down, Cooper appoints agency veteran for rest of term
N.C. Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Elizabeth Biser, the first woman confirmed to lead the state’s environmental agency, resigned Thursday.
Gov. Roy Cooper nominated Biser in June 2021, and the N.C. Senate confirmed her to lead the agency in August of that year.
In recent months, Biser’s leadership of the agency has been defined by an effort to enact enforceable groundwater and surface water quality standards for forever chemicals. DEQ’s proposed standards have met stiff opposition from powerful trade groups, namely the N.C. Chamber.
“Under Governor Cooper’s leadership, we have advanced the fight against forever chemicals, used historic state and federal funding to increase access to clean water and proved that a healthy environment and a healthy economy go hand in hand,” Biser said in a statement.
During her time in office, Biser also served as president of the Environmental Council of the States, a national nonpartisan group of environmental regulatory agency leaders. Biser’s time leading the group ended on Sept. 6.
Biser will return to the private sector, according to a release from Cooper’s office.
Who will replace Biser?
Cooper has named Mary Penny Kelley to lead DEQ for the remainder of his time in office. Cooper leaves office in January.
Kelley, an environmental attorney, is coming to DEQ from a role as special adviser to the state’s Hometown Strong Initiative. That initiative is meant to boost the state’s rural communities, in part by helping them land federal grant funds.
“Safe air, land and drinking water are vital for strong communities, healthy families and a growing economy and I look forward to continuing protect these vital resources and hold polluters accountable,” Kelley said in a statement.
As an attorney for the N.C. Attorney General’s Office beginning in 1997, Kelley’s portfolio included environmental issues such as coastal development and water quality.
Kelley became the then-N.C. Department of Natural Resources’ general counsel in 2005, rising to an assistant secretary role in 2009 and then to chief deputy secretary in 2012.
After leaving the department for much of the McCrory administration, Kelley returned in February 2017 in a senior adviser role focusing on community engagement and carbon-free energy issues. She left in late 2017 to work on Hometown Strong, serving as the initiative’s executive director from June 2020 to June 2024.
“Mary Penny Kelley’s long career in environmental law and experience within DEQ make her the right person to lead the department and continue to work to protect North Carolina’s air and water,” Cooper said in a statement.
Cooper also vowed that Kelley would continue working to address PFAS in North Carolina.
How we got here
Biser was Cooper’s third appointment to the DEQ secretary role. Michael Regan served in the role for Cooper’s first term in office, leaving the job to serve as U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator under President Joe Biden.
Cooper initially chose Dionne Delli-Gatti to succeed Regan, but the N.C. Senate denied Delli-Gatti’s confirmation. After that, Cooper named Delli-Gatti as his clean energy director and appointed Biser to lead DEQ.
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This story was originally published September 12, 2024 at 1:26 PM with the headline "DEQ Secretary Biser steps down, Cooper appoints agency veteran for rest of term."