Biden Administration Gives Top Energy Post to Climate Activist Who Failed Senate Confirmation Over Ethics Concerns
- January 13, 2023
The Biden administration announced this week that Elizabeth Klein, an official with a history of climate activism, as the new director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM).
In its announcement, the Department of the Interior (DOI), which oversees BOEM, lauded Klein — who joined the administration as a senior counselor to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in 2021 after the Senate failed to confirm her as the agency’s second in command — for her experience as an attorney specializing in clean energy, climate change and environmental law and policy.
“Protect the Public’s Trust and others still have a raft of unanswered questions regarding her ethics documents and her participation in matters involving her former clients while she was at the controversial Bloomberg-funded State Energy and Environmental Impact Center, which placed ‘fellows’ at state Attorneys General offices around the country to lead lawsuits against Interior and other government agencies,” the group added.
“While the Biden Administration continually touts itself as the most ethical in history, this represents yet another example in which ethics takes a backseat to policy and politics,” PPT continued in its statement.