The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler announced the appointment of Gregory Sopkin of Colorado to become regional administrator for Region 8. Sopkin will oversee environmental protection efforts in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota and Montana.
Sopkin has spent much of his career working in public service and private legal practice in Colorado. Sopkin will join the agency having worked for the last 12 years on energy, environment, and telecommunications matters. He most recently worked at Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP.
Prior to entering private practice, Sopkin served as chairman of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission from January 2003 to January 2007 where he was responsible for conducting quasi-judicial and quasi-legislative proceedings, drafting legal decisions, meeting with state legislators and investigating service outages. He also served as Assistant Attorney General from September 1997 to August 2000 where he represented the Colorado Public Utilities Commission Staff electric, gas and telecommunications proceedings before the Commission, and the PUC in appeals to District Court, Colorado Supreme Court and Federal Courts.
Published in the June 2019 Edition