COLUMBUS — Gov. Mike DeWine announced Wednesday the nomination of Anne M. Vogel to be the next director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
If confirmed by the Ohio Senate, Vogel will replace outgoing director Laurie A. Stevenson, who announced her intent to retire at the end of the year.
“Anne Vogel brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the helm of the Ohio EPA,” DeWine. “Because she worked with me as policy director, Anne knows my priorities and will provide leadership to this important agency charged with protecting Ohio’s air, land, and water.”
Serving as policy director for DeWine during his first term, Vogel was responsible with implementing the vision for the major initiatives of the DeWine-Husted Administration.
Chief among them is the creation and launch of H2Ohio, the governor’s water quality initiative that brings together the Ohio EPA, Ohio Department of Agriculture and Ohio Department of Natural Resources to improve water quality through creation of wetlands, reduction in phosphorus runoff and access to clean drinking water and quality sewer systems.
Vogel holds a law degree from Capital University and an MBA from The Ohio State University.
According to a story published in 2020 and updated in 2021 by the Energy and Policy Institute, DeWine and Vogel reported receiving gifts in 2019 from a newly formed organization that received funding from Empowering Ohio’s Economy, the AEP-backed group that’s now caught up in Ohio’s utility corruption scandal.
Vogel worked as AEP’s managing director of federal government affairs directly prior to joining DeWine’s office as assistant policy director for energy and natural resources in March of 2019.
According to the story, DeWine and Vogel reported gifts from the Ohio Governor’s Residence and Office Foundation, which incorporated in Ohio as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit on Jan. 28, 2019, about two weeks after DeWine’s inauguration.
DeWine and Vogel reported the gifts on 2019 financial disclosure statements they filed with the Ohio Ethics Commission.
Vogel reported $94,098.55 in income from AEP for 2019, and disclosed investments of over $1,000 in common stock for several electric utilities, including AEP, Exelon, and FirstEnergy Corp.
After Vogel was hired by DeWine, she began lobbying for the Governor’s Office on a small number of bills that included House Bill 6, which provided millions of dollars in new coal plant subsidies that benefit AEP, according to the story.
A story by Cleveland.com published Dec. 1 said Vogel was expected to become the chief of staff for the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, according to an agency spokesman who was not identified in the story.
