Basil Seggos
ALBANY – Governor Andrew Cuomo has selected his next choice as leader of the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
The governor has nominated Basil Seggos to be the next commissioner of the DEC.
Seggos joined the administration in 2012 and has served as Governor Cuomo’s Deputy Secretary for the Environment since 2013. He is also a Captain in the U.S. Army Reserve and currently serves at a JAG unit in Schenectady. Previously, Seggos served as Vice President of Business Development at the Hugo Neu Corporation, a private equity company with a focus on recycling and sustainable industry.
Prior to that, he served as Riverkeeper’s Chief Investigator, attorney, and Hudson River Program Director. Seggos also previously held positions at the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Council on Environmental Quality in the White House.
Seggos replaces Joseph Martens, who resigned from the post in July.
Seggos takes over the DEC after a tumultuous four years. The DEC was at the forefront of the battle over whether to allow for hydraulic fracturing in New York, but Cuomo decided last December to ban the controversial drilling practice — which would have largely impacted the gas-rich Southern Tier.
The agency is also facing pressure from environmentalists to ban an underground gas storage facility in the Finger Lakes.
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