The number of enforcement cases fell sharply during her tenure. The department replaced some passages on its website describing humans as partly responsible for climate change, saying instead that scientists were still debating the matter.

When she accepted the earlier EPA posting in August, Stepp told staffers with the DNR she was leaving behind an agency that ensured businesses were not “delayed by bureaucracy.”

Walker said Stepp was “a strong, trusted reformer,” while Kurt Bauer, president of Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, said she had “routinely balanced the needs of a growing economy with the importance of protecting our natural resources.”

But the head of the EPA’s national employee union said Stepp, 54, is unqualified and has a history of favoring business interests over environmental protection.

“I see her cutting back on enforcement and fines and doing things that certain aspects of industry will appreciate,” said John O’Grady, president of AFGE Council 238, which represents about 9,000 EPA staffers.

Howard Learner, executive director of the Chicago-based Environmental Law & Policy Center, said the DNR under Stepp “turned back the clock on basic safeguards” of water and air.