Watchdog group says Energy Department official may have violated ethics obligations

Watchdog group says Energy Department official may have violated ethics obligations

  • May 29, 2021

The official is a former member of an energy trade association

Adam Shaw, Fox News

A top Energy Department official is facing accusations of a potential conflict of interest, after a watchdog group said she had suggested a pattern of advancing the interests of an energy association of which she is a former CEO.

Kelly Speakes-Backman, who serves as acting Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, is a former CEO of the Energy Storage Association. 

Protect the Public’s Trust, a watchdog that identifies potential conflicts of interest, has written to the Energy Department’s general counsel pointing to an April 16  panel on energy storage technology, in which it says Speakes-Backman “unnecessarily made multiple mentions of her former employer and implied her involvement in a major program initiative that would likely financially benefit her former employer and its members.”

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