Biden names Central Valley advocate to lead EPA in California, western U.S.
A longtime advocate for disadvantaged communities and the environment with roots in central California has been tapped by the Biden administration to lead the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 9, covering the southwestern United States and Pacific islands.
Martha Guzman Aceves, a member of the California Public Utilities Commission for the past five years, was announced Thursday as President Joe Biden’s appointee to become the Region 9 administrator for the federal environmental agency.
The Region 9 office in San Francisco oversees implementation and enforcement of federal environmental laws in California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii, Pacific islands and 148 tribal nations across the Pacific Southwest of the U.S.
The appointment was announced by EPA Administrator Michael Regan.
“I am honored to be appointed by President Biden to serve as administrator of EPA Region 9 under the leadership of Administrator Regan,” Guzman Aceves said in a statement issued by the EPA. “And I am grateful for the opportunity to work with the resilient staff at Region 9 as we tackle the chronic and emerging environmental issues in our communities.”
Her duties on the Public Utilities Commission include fiscal oversight of utility companies, expanding access to broadband, water affordability, clean energy programs and preventing utility disconnections in low-income communities.
In a 2019 opinion column in The Fresno Bee as a CPUC commissioner, Guzman Aceves acknowledged that residents in rural communities throughout the central San Joaquin Valley confront multiple disadvantages beyond what she described as “the most extreme energy burdens in the state, paying a much larger percentage of their income for energy.”
She said those disadvantages include daily exposure air pollution and, in many instances, poor infrastructure to provide access to affordable energy and water.
“In California, we know climate change is real,” she wrote. “We also know that methane and carbon emissions are some of the leading culprits in this accelerating change. … “San Joaquin Valley residents as a result face more intense and frequent heat waves, increased and prolonged droughts, greater risks of natural disasters such as floods and wildfires and are more vulnerable to a number of likely public health threats.”
Prior to her appointment to the state utilities commission in December 2016 by then-Gov. Jerry Brown, Guzman Aceves served as Brown’s deputy legislative secretary with a focus on bills related to natural resources, environmental protection, energy, and food and agriculture.
Guzman Aceves, who is from Sacramento, has a career background that includes work as legislative coordinator for the United Farm Workers and director of the Sustainable Communities Project for the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, organizations that are active in Fresno and the central San Joaquin Valley.
Before joining Brown’s staff in Sacramento in 2011, Guzman Aceves was a partner with Texas-based Cultivo Consulting, a human relations company.
According to her LinkedIn professional profile, she was a co-founder of Communities for a New California and a former member of the California Water Commission. Guzman Aveves has also served on the boards of the UC Davis Agricultural Sustainability Institute, Ag Innovations, the Sierra Institute for Community and Environment, and Pesticide Action Network North America.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in international economics at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and received her master’s degree in agricultural and resource economics from the UC Davis.
“Given Martha’s extensive background in successfully delivering access to underserved communities, I am confident she is an excellent choice to lead our Region 9 team,” Regan said in announcing the appointment.
“Martha is an experienced leader that values economic justice and will represent the best interests of the residents in the region.”
