Collin O’Mara serves as Secretary of the Environment and Energy for Delaware Governor Jack Markell. In this role, he serves as the chief steward of Delaware’s natural resources and leads the state’s efforts to ensure access to clean water, improve air quality, remediate contaminated sites, reduce flood damage, expand youth outdoor experiences, and restore wildlife habitat. He also oversees implementation of the Governor’s goal to make Delaware a leader in the global clean energy economy.
When Governor Markell appointed Secretary O’Mara in 2009, he was the youngest state cabinet official in the nation. Since joining the administration, he has worked to modernize Delaware’s energy sector with a focus on reducing pollution, stabilizing costs, improving reliability, and seizing economic development opportunities. He has negotiated the shutdown of the most polluting coal units in the state, facilitated switch-fueling of units, overseen installation of cutting-edge pollution controls on the largest coal unit in the state, and is helping to facilitate a wide range of renewable energy projects. He has led an aggressive energy efficiency campaign in collaboration with the Sustainable Energy Utility and local utilities, including the implementation of the nation’s first HomeStar program.
Under the Governor’s leadership, Secretary O’Mara has championed a range of innovative legislative initiatives, including the Energy Conservation and Efficiency Act and the Clean Energy Jobs Act. These bills established statewide goals reducing per capita electrical and natural gas consumption by 15 percent and 10 percent, respectively by 2015, strengthened the state’s renewable portfolio standard, expanded renewable rights, enhanced net-metering, modernized renewable energy incentives, enabled vehicle-to-grid technology, and strengthened building codes for energy efficiency. He has also launched statewide efforts to prepare Delaware for increasing threats from sea-level rise and other climate impacts, particularly in the coastal communities.
In addition to his work in energy and climate policy, Secretary O’Mara also helped spearhead the state’s landmark universal recycling legislation, which, for the first time, requires trash haulers to provide curbside recycling pickup statewide. He also is leading the effort to modernize DNREC through restructuring, the first significant reorganization of the agency since 1972, in an effort to make the agency leaner and more efficient in carrying out its mission.
Secretary O’Mara serves on numerous boards including the Executive Committee of the Sustainable Energy Utility Oversight Board, State Water Supply Coordinating Council, Vice Chair of the Ozone Transport Commission, Executive Committee of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, Executive Council of the Chesapeake Bay Program, Board of the Climate Prosperity Project, the Delaware Cancer Consortium, Open Space Council, Nutrient Management Commission, and the Center for the Inland Bays.
Prior to joining Governor Markell, Secretary O’Mara served as the Clean Tech Strategist for the City of San Jose, and was the primary architect of the city of San Jose’s Green Vision, built upon the belief that environmental sustainability and smart economic development are inextricably linked and entirely compatible. He helped San Jose attract more than 50 clean technology companies, which created more than 3,000 new jobs and generated nearly $2 billion in new investment. Previously, Secretary O’Mara led a division of Syracuse city government where he was responsible for overseeing the modernization of city services and leading the cutting-edge accountability and efficiency program as Director of SyraStat.
A native of Syracuse, N.Y, Secretary O’Mara was a Marshall Scholar at the University of Oxford, a University Fellow at the Maxwell School of citizenship and Public Affairs, and a Presidential Scholar at Dartmouth. He is a Catto Fellow at the Aspen Institute, a U.S. Green Building Council LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) accredited professional, and completed Stanford Business School’s Executive Management Program in Environmental Sustainability.
He and his wife Lindsay live in Wilmington.
