William Kane Reilly (1940 – )
American conservationist and Environmental Protection Agency administrator

Called the "first professional environmentalist" to head the Environmental Protection Agency since its founding in 1970, Reilly came to the agency in 1989 with a background in law and urban planning. He had been appointed to President Richard Nixon's Council on Environmental Quality in 1970, and was named executive director of the Task Force on Land Use and Urban Growth two years later. In 1973, Reilly became president of the Conservation Foundation, a non-profit environmental research group based in Washington, D.C., which he is credited with transforming into a considerable force for environmental protection around the world. In 1985, the Conservation Foundation merged with the World Wildlife Fund ; Reilly was named as president, and under his direction, membership grew to 600,000 with an annual budget of $35 million.

Reilly began to cautiously criticize White House environmental policy during Ronald Reagan's administration, objecting to the appointments of James G. Watt , and his successor William P. Clark, as secretary of the interior. He published articles and spoke publicly about pollution , species diversification, rain forest destruction, and wetlands loss.

After his confirmation as EPA administrator, Reilly laid out an agenda that was clearly different from his predecessor, Lee Thomas. Reilly promised "vigorous and aggressive enforcement of the environmental laws," a tough new Clean Air Act , and an international agreement to reduce chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in the atmosphere . Calling toxic waste cleanup a top priority, Reilly also promised action to decrease urban smog , remove dangerous chemicals from the market more quickly, encourage strict fuel efficiency standards, increase recycling efforts, protect wetlands, and encourage international cooperation on global warming and ozone layer depletion .

In March 1989, Reilly overruled a recommendation of a regional EPA director and suspended plans to build the Two Forks Dam on the South Platte River in Colorado. The decision relieved environmentalists who had feared construction of the dam would foul a prime trout stream, flood a scenic canyon, and disrupt wildlife migration patterns. That same year, Reilly criticized the federal government's response to the grounding of the Exxon Valdez and the oil spill in Prince William Sound , Alaska.

At Reilly's urging, President George Bush proposed major revisions of the Clean Air Act of 1970. The new act required public utilities to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide by nearly half. It also contained measures that reduced emissions of toxic chemicals by industry and lowered the levels of urban smog.

Under Reilly's direction, the EPA also enacted a gradual ban on the production and importation of most products made of asbestos . He left the agency in 1992, and in 1993 became President and Chief Executive Officer of Aqua International Partners, L. P.

[Linda Rehkopf ]

RESOURCES

PERIODICALS

Williams, T. "It's Lonely Being Green: In an Environmentally Unfriendly Administration, William K. Reilly and John Turner Have Stood Alone as Conservationists." Audubon 94 (September–October 1993): 52–6.