Natural Resources Democratic Leaders Demand Ethics Investigation into Suspected Ethics Violations by Trump Official
BOEM director’s ties to Big Oil lobbying raise red flags over corruption and favoritism.
Washington, D.C. – Today, Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Ranking Member Maxine Dexter (D-Ore.), Indian and Insular Affairs Subcommittee Ranking Member Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.), Water, Wildlife, and Fisheries Subcommittee Ranking Member Val Hoyle (D-Ore.), and Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee Ranking Member Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) called for a formal investigation into whether Acting Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Director Matthew Giacona violated federal ethics rules by engaging on matters directly tied to his prior lobbying work for the National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA), a powerful oil and gas lobbying group.
In a new letter to the Department of the Interior’s Inspector General, the lawmakers warn that Giacona “appears to have engaged on the same subject-matter areas on which he lobbied while at NOIA,” including the Gulf of Mexico Endangered Species Act Biological Opinion, protections for the endangered Rice’s whale, and Lease Sale 262.
Federal ethics rules “categorically prohibit” Giacona from personally and substantially participating in any matter that affects NOIA or its member companies, like Chevron and Transocean. Yet, records show he shared insider information with Chevron, coordinated meetings with oil lobbyists, and worked internally on lease sales that directly overlapped with his lobbying portfolio.
“Taken together, these actions call into question Mr. Giacona’s adherence to federal ethics rules,” the lawmakers wrote. “His company-specific engagements with NOIA member firms functioned as a de facto backdoor to the very participation the impartiality rules were designed to prevent.”
The lawmakers write these ethical concerns “are especially troubling in the midst of the Trump Administration’s ongoing attack on energy security,” noting that the Administration has cancelled offshore wind projects that would have delivered affordable clean energy for Americans.
“Rather than providing a level playing field, the Administration is picking winners and losers in the energy sector,” the lawmakers wrote, which they pointed out is raising prices and cutting our economic strength.
“Elevating a former oil and gas lobbyist into a regulatory role over the same industry is emblematic of an Administration that has abandoned even the pretense of impartiality,” the lawmakers continue. “This conduct undermines public confidence that federal regulators are acting in the public interest and demands close scrutiny by your office.”
The letter requests that the Inspector General investigate whether Giacona used his government position to give his former industry association or its Big Oil members “special access to the agency that regulates them.”
Read the full letter here.
###
Press Contact
Mary Hurrell
(202) 225-5187
Next Article Previous Article