Gov.-elect Rick Scott has appointed Jacksonville businessman and lawyer Herschel Vinyard as secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection the day before Scott will be sworn in as governor.

Vinyard is currently director of business operations at BAE Systems Southeast Shipyards, the world’s second largest defense contractor according to a press release issued by Scott’s transition team.

Vinyard, who also served on the Jacksonville Port Authority and the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce, received his undergraduate and law degrees from Louisiana State University.

The regulatory agency, last headed by marine biologist Mike Sole, is one of several departments Scott has targeted for reform. The governor-elect has made streamlining permitting and reducing regulations and red tape for businesses a priority.

Former Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Mike Sole has gone to work for Juno Beach-based Florida Power & Light.

The marine biologist is the vice president of the power company’s government affairs department, according to an internal FPL memo.

Sole, appointed by Gov. Charlie Crist shortly after he took office four years ago, stepped down as DEP chief this summer in the midst of overseeing the state’s response to the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster.

The massive oil leak and continuing outpouring of oil into the Gulf of Mexico is a siege, not a marathon, Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Mike Sole told lawmakers on a conference call this afternoon.

“A lot of times in the emergency management realm we say this is not a sprint, it’s a marathon,” Sole, the state’s lead official in charge of the Deepwater Horizon disaster response, said. “Well, sadly this is not a marathon because I don’t know how far we’re going to run. This is a siege.”

Sole said the state will “continue to throw everything we have at it until it’s solved whether that’s solved in two days because they suddenly get the blow-out prevention device to work or whether they need to keep trying everything and the only solution, the only thing that works is the relief well.”

BP’s attempt to funnel the 210,000 gallons a day spewing out of the wrecked rig 5,000 feet below the ocean’s surface failed this weekend. The oil giant is building a relief well to stop the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. But that project will take two to three months to complete, Sole said.

And BP is considering other experimental options to try to reduce the amount of oil coursing into the Gulf.

Rep. Greg Evers, R-Baker, asked Sole if he could ballpark the chances of success for capping the leak before the relief well is complete.

“That’s an excellent question. The answer is no I don’t,” Sole said, followed by a lengthy silence.

“Whether or not they try other options …whether they’re well-formulated and good ideas that they want to pursue, that’s what they’re looking at,” said Sole, a biologist. “I don’t want to say they’re doing to do x. I know they’re looking at those options but they haven’t made a decision yet on what would be the right thing to do.”