"President Biden's pick this week to oversee the Army's vast natural resources operation would bring to the job decades of water experience at the Interior Department and on Capitol Hill.

The president tapped Michael Connor to be the Department of Defense's assistant secretary of the Army for civil works, which oversees the Army Corps of Engineers and its huge network of dams and other projects.

Connor would play a major role in some of the most controversial projects facing the Biden administration in the environmental arena, including the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, as well as Clean Water Act permitting.

Those who know him said Connor is highly qualified for the post."

Jeremy P. Jacobs and Hannah Northey report for E&E News April 30, 2021. [2]