WASHINGTON -- President Reagan has picked Donald Hodel, an interior undersecretary, to succeed James Edwards as secretary of energy, it was reported Monday.
Edwards, a South Carolina oral surgeon, is leaving to become president of the Medical University of South Carolina.
The Washington Post said his replacement will be Hodel, a former energy consultant.
The Post said W. Kenneth Davis, a former Bechtel Corp., executive who served under Edwards as deputy Energy Secretary, also is expected to resign after the election. The newspaper said Irene Wischer, a Texas oil executive, is being considered for the No. 2 position in the department.
Hodel, 47, was administrator of the Bonneville Power Administration from 1972 to 1977 before founding his own firm, Hodel Associates Inc., which did consulting work for a number of major western utility companies.
Hodel's job has been to push Watt's policies through the Interior bureaucracy. The Post said he is given credit within the agency for the changes Watt has brought in relaxing restrictions on development of public lands.
Mrs. Wischer is president and chief executive officer of Panhandle Producing Co. of San Antonio, an oil and gas company founded by her late first husband. She was active in the presidential campaigns of Barry Goldwater and Richard Nixon.
