DOE headquarters in D.C. Photo: J. David Ake/Getty Images
The White House tapped a lawyer who argued against Biden administration environmental regulations to be the Energy Department's next general counsel.
Why it matters: Jonathan Brightbill argued the West Virginia v. EPA case at the D.C. Circuit that ultimately limited the EPA's efforts to address climate change.
- Brightbill, if confirmed, would be the clearest sign yet of the agency's shift away from issuing major regulations without clear direction from Congress in a post-Chevron world.
Brightbill, as the Justice Department's top environmental lawyer under Trump 1.0, defended EPA's decision to repeal the Obama-era Clean Power Plan and replace it with the Affordable Clean Energy Rule.
- He also argued for the Trump EPA's definition of the "waters of the U.S.," the scope of which the Supreme Court similarly limited in 2023.
Zoom in: President Trump also sent over nominations to lead the agency's electricity office and its nuclear waste cleanup mission.
- Catherine Jereza, a utility industry veteran currently an adviser in the Office of Infrastructure, was nominated to be assistant secretary for electricity.
- Timothy Walsh was tapped to be an assistant secretary for environmental management.
Between the lines: Jereza would oversee the fate of the DOE's electricity programs, which were expanded under the IRA and shifted to the new Grid Deployment Office.
- Project 2025 calls for defunding "most" of the Grid Deployment Office's programs but leaving some IIJA grants that "appear to be properly focused on enhancing the reliability and security of the electric grid."
- Walsh would take the helm of a decades-long DOE environmental program after DOGE tried to close a field office at its only permanent waste repository in New Mexico.
