LINCOLN- Effective April 19th, Jim Macy, the nine-year director of the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy, will retire from his post. Macy worked 28 years with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources before being hired by then-Gov. Pete Ricketts for the top job at the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality, which later merged with the state's energy department.

In a press release, Gov. Pillen thanked Macy for his years of public service and wished him well. Macy's tenure at the department was marked by criticism over the department's handling of an ethanol plant near Mead that had failed to comply with agency orders and state regulations with its use of pesticide-coated seed corn.

Last year, during debate over Macy's reconfirmation to the department in the Nebraska Legislature, Sen. Carol Blood criticized the director for not acting more quickly to shut down the ethanol plant. Pillen announced that Thad Fineran will serve as interim director of NDEE starting April 1st. Fineran is the current chief of staff to Maj. Gen. Craig Strong, the adjutant general of the Nebraska National Guard.

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