James Bruggers

Louisville Courier Journal

Two veteran public servants in the state's Energy and Environment Cabinet have lost their jobs, including a former air division chief who had been guiding the state's response to President Barack Obama's new climate pollution regulations.

John Lyons was named assistant secretary for climate policy in 2013 by former Gov. Steve Beshear. He had been promoted to run the Kentucky Division for Air Quality in 2002 and did that for four years under Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher, then with Beshear.

Energy Secretary Charles Snavely, a former Arch Coal executive, confirmed late Tuesday that Lyons had left the agency. He also said attorney and former general counsel for the environment cabinet, Mike Haines, was also let go.

Snavely declined further comment on what he described as personnel matters.

Lyons had perhaps one of the toughest jobs politically in Frankfort. In Beshear's administration and with former energy secretary Len Peters, he had bosses who acknowledged that climate change was real even as the state fought EPA rules it considered unfair or onerous. But Peters also wanted Kentucky to be prepared with options should the EPA's Clean Power plan on coal-burning go foward, as it did, despite Kentucky lawmakers hostile to that idea even in the governor's own Democratic Party.

Gov. Matt Bevin, a Republican, has intensified the political rhetoric against the EPA and Snavely has said it's his job as the state's top environmental regulator to make sure "we are not a hindrance to any industry."

Bevin has called human-caused climate change "fluff and theory," despite widespread agreement of its threats within the mainstream scientific community.

The Supreme Court has issued a temporary stay on implementation of the Clean Power Plan during judicial review.

Haines said he has worked at the cabinet 28 years and has been a non-merit employee since 1998. He said he was "shocked" after he had earlier been asked to stay, though at a lower position.

Bevin: 'I hired him because he's a coal man'

Bevin took office in December and with victory comes the spoils – in this case choosing your political leadership in the non-merit positions of state government. Several other environment cabinet officials have been shown the door, including former longtime Kentucky Division of Forestry Director Leah MacSwords – the first woman to run that agency – and Kentucky Environmental Quality Commission Executive Director Arnita Gadson.

John Lyons to lead Kentucky response to climate change rules

Among those still holding on: R. Bruce Scott, the Commissioner of the Department for Environmental Protection, and Peter Goodmann, director of the Kentucky Division of Water.

Reporter James Bruggers writes this Watchdog Earth blog. Reach him at (502) 582-4645 or at jbruggers@courier-journal.com.