Pillen, eyeing merger, appoints interim Natural Resources director to lead Environment and Energy

LINCOLN — The interim director of the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources has been tapped to also lead the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy, a first step in Gov. Jim Pillen’s goal to combine the agencies.

The governor announced his appointment Wednesday of Jesse Bradley to lead both departments. Bradley is the third person to lead Environment and Energy in an interim capacity since former director Jim Macy retired in April 2024. Bradley has served as interim DNR director since August, a position he also briefly held in 2020.

The move comes as Pillen has set his sights on combining the two agencies Bradley now leads. Merged, they would be the Nebraska Department of Water, Energy and Environment. Pillen has said he would form a governor’s task force on water quality and quantity. Many of DNR’s responsibilities would continue in the merged agencies overseen by a “chief water officer.”

The merger would require legislative approval. Legislative Bill 317, introduced at Pillen’s request by State Sen. Tom Brandt of Plymouth, would fold the Department of Natural Resources into the Department of Environment and Energy, effective July 1, at the start of a new fiscal year. The bill doesn’t yet have a cost estimate. 

The proposal will be considered at a public hearing Thursday before the Legislature’s Natural Resources Committee, which Brandt chairs.

Pillen said in a statement that water management is critical to the state and that steps must be made to continue to innovate and improve water quantity and quality “for the next seven generations.”

“Jesse’s vast experience in that area, coupled with his ability to bridge the gap between local needs, the state and federal regulators, make him strongly qualified to lead DNR and DEE when they are combined through passage of LB 317,” Pillen said.

A spokesperson for the governor said Bradley’s combined salary for his positions is $225,000.

Bradley has been with DNR since 2006, beginning as an integrated water management analyst. He became head of the agency’s Water Planning Division in 2012 and became deputy director two years later. He has degrees in environmental geology and hydrogeology and is a licensed professional geologist in the state.

LB 317 would remove the step of letting an outside group, the Environmental Quality Council, recommend names for the governor to consider to lead Energy and Environment. Pillen in his statement said he would continue to consult with the group as the legislation moves forward.

The director would still need to be experienced in air, water and land pollution control.

Pillen noted Bradley’s role in implementing Sumner State Sen. Teresa Ibach’s LB 1368 of 2024, the Nitrogen Reduction Incentive Act, involving close collaboration with local natural resources districts to protect the state’s water, its “most precious natural resource.”

The law, which is set to end Dec. 31, 2029, provides incentive payments to farmers who use innovative technology in their farming practices, including the proper use of biological nitrogen products.

Brandt said he finds Bradley very knowledgeable and well-liked, particularly by local natural resources districts.

“I have no doubt he’ll do a good job,” Brandt told the Nebraska Examiner.