New DNR commissioner names acting replacements; Van Dyke as oil chief

Natural Resources Commissioner Mike Menge has named an acting deputy commissioner and three acting division directors to fill vacancies in the department created when six officials resigned Oct. 28 after former Commissioner Tom Irwin was removed from office by the governor.

All appointments are effective immediately, the department said Nov. 1.

Ed Fogels, project manager with the Office of Project Management and Permitting, will serve as acting deputy commissioner of the department, responsible for all departmental operations other than oil and gas and pipeline issues.

Three deputies were promoted to acting directors: Bill Van Dyke, acting deputy director of the Division of Oil and Gas; Randy Bates, deputy director of the Office of Project Management and Permitting; and Dick Mylius, deputy director of the Division of Mining, Land and Water.

Fogels has been project manager in the Office of Project Managing and Permitting since 2000, coordinating permitting activity for large mine projects. He formerly regulated state coal mining in the Division of Mining, Land and Water; was head of land disposals in the Division of Lands; and was a natural resource planner. Fogels has a bachelor’s degree in environmental sciences from the University of Virginia.

Van Dyke has been a state petroleum manager with the department since 1981, and acting deputy director of the Division of Oil and Gas for the past year. Van Dyke joined DNR as a reservoir engineer in 1978. He previously worked as a petroleum engineer for Chevron Oil Co. and Gulf Oil Co. Van Dyke has a bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering from Pennsylvania State University and is a registered petroleum engineer in Alaska.

Bates has been deputy director of the Office of Project Management and Permitting since 2003, responsible for overseeing coastal management office revisions and for developing the large project permitting office. Bates has a bachelor’s degree in fisheries science from Oregon State University and has completed coursework toward a master’s degree in fisheries management at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Mylius has been deputy director of the Division of Mining, Land and Water since 2003. He started with DNR in 1982 as a land planner and in 1995 became manager of DNR’s resource assessment and development section. Mylius has a bachelor’s degree in geography from the State University of New York and a master’s degree in regional planning from the University of Michigan.

—Petroleum News