Gov. Jay Inslee today announced the appointment of Roselyn Marcus as interim chair of the state’s Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council. The council reviews siting proposals for major energy facilities.
Marcus is a well-respected attorney and assistant director of Legal and Legislative Affairs at the Office of Financial Management. She replaces EFSEC Chairman Bill Lynch, who resigned earlier this month. Marcus begins Sept. 11 and will return to OFM once a permanent council chair is named.
“Roselyn has decades of legal experience and a strong understanding of Washington state agencies,” Inslee said. “As interim chair, I am confident she will exemplify the fairness and impartiality demanded by the EFSEC process.”
Marcus previously served as director of legal affairs at OFM from 2003 to 2011, then as assistant director for the Contracts and Legal Services Division at the Department of Enterprise Services before returning to OFM in 2013. From 1989 to 1996, she represented a variety of state agencies as a Washington state assistant attorney general. She also has served as general counsel to the Texas State Racing Commission and has taught negotiation classes at the University of Washington Tacoma and Saint Martin’s University in Lacey.
Marcus received her bachelor’s degree in business from New York University and her Juris Doctor from Pace University in New York City. She is a former Army JAG officer and has served as a special assistant United States attorney in South Carolina.
EFSEC reviews projects through a quasi-judicial process that includes studies and public hearings, culminating in making a recommendation on the project to the governor. The governor then has 60 days to approve or reject an application or return it to the council for reconsideration. The governor is barred from any involvement during the EFSEC review.
The Attorney General’s Office provides legal advice to EFSEC. Attorney General Bob Ferguson recuses himself from client advice to EFSEC when the Counsel for the Environment, a separate part of the Attorney General’s Office mandated by the Legislature to represent the public in certain proposed energy projects, participates in an EFSEC proceeding on a project.
EFSEC is currently reviewing a proposed oil terminal at the Port of Vancouver. The leadership change on the council is not expected to affect the timing or substance of that review.