State senator also feeding at federal trough to tune of $161K per year

Sen. Doug Ericksen, R-Ferndale, left, defender and advocate for the...

State Sen. Doug Ericksen, R-Ferndale, is being paid at an annual rate of $161,900 for what he has insisted is a temporary posting as part of the Trump transition team making deep cuts in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Ericksen is working 30-40 hours a week at his Washington, D.C., job, according to pay stubs obtained by Oregon Public Broadcasting under the Freedom of Information Act.

The documents show that Ericksen was paid $11,434 between Jan. 22, 2017 and Feb. 18. He told OPB that he was "still not really aware, to be honest with you," how much he is being paid.

The Whatcom County lawmaker, who co-chaired Trump's campaign in Washington state, has insisted he can do his $45,474-a-year job in the Washington State Legislature as well as his Washington, D.C., posting at the EPA.

Ericksen has said he would forego the $120 per diem in expenses paid to members while the Legislature is in session. But records suggest he has taken the money when in Olympia.

Ericksen is chairman of the Senate Energy and Environment Committee in the Legislature. He has insisted that he has kept up, by using the internet, with the panel's work. The committee's vice chair is state Sen. Tim Sheldon, a Democrat from Potlach who votes with Republicans and gives the GOP control of the Legislature's upper chamber.

Ericksen did bring a climate change denier to testify at a recent Senate hearing in Olympia. He decried as "hatchet jobs" critical news reports.

He has been dubbed "double-dipping Doug" by critics in his 42nd District. They have posted critical comments on his Facebook page, only to have the remarks deleted. Ericksen has blocked a number of his critics.

Ericksen is rumored to be a finalist for the post of Region X director of the EPA, which includes the Northwest and Alaska.

He has been a defender and advocate of railroads as well as the two oil refineries in his district. He also has been a vociferous critic of Gov. Jay Inslee's environmental agenda, notably the governor's proposal to make the state's major polluters pay for their carbon emissions.

Ericksen appeared with Trump at a rally last May at the Northwest Washington Fairgrounds in Lynden. The other state co-chair, former state Sen. Don Benton of Vancouver, is in a more senior position as the EPA transition team's liaison with the White House.

The news on Ericksen's pay came on a day of bad news for the EPA.

The Trump administration is proposing to cut $2.6 billion, or 31 percent, from the agency's current budget of $8.2 billion. The $5.7 billion budget, adjusted for inflation, would be the lowest since the Environmental Protection Agency was created under President Nixon in 1970.

The cut is among the deepest of any federal agency.

In the Pacific Northwest, EPA money has helped coastal cities build sewage treatment plants. It recently delivered a detailed, critical analysis on impacts of a giant proposed mine between two prime spawning streams for the giant salmon fishery of Alaska's Bristol Bay.

Washington has four members on the Senate and House Appropriations Committees, which will decide whether to go along with the deep cuts proposed by Trump.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., is a senior Democratic member on the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Two Republican lawmakers, U.S. Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler and Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., are members of the House Appropriations Committee. Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Wash., also sits on House Appropriations.