WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee held a business meeting to consider multiple nominations, including Joseph Goffman to be an assistant administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Air and Radiation. Ranking Member Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), along with every Republican, voted against Goffman’s nomination, which resulted in a 10-10 tie vote.
Ranking Member Capito has previously voiced her strong opposition to Goffman’s nomination, including at a May 2022 hearing, a July 2022 business meeting, and in a July 2022 op-ed.
Below is a portion of Ranking Member Shelley Moore Capito’s (R-W.Va.) opening statement made at today’s business meeting.
“At this point, everybody knows where I stand on the nomination of Joe Goffman as the assistant administrator for Air and Radiation at the EPA.
“Both throughout his previous service in the Obama administration and during the 22 months he has been at EPA in the Biden administration in a non-Senate-confirmed role, he has made his leadership style and policy views clear.
“He has worked to develop regulations that harm our energy sector, will raise prices on American families and businesses, and are based on overreaching, illegal interpretations of the Clean Air Act as found by the Supreme Court.
“As I said in our July committee business meeting, Joe Goffman continues to implement policies designed to force closures of baseload power plants through a suite of policies.
“Shortly after the Supreme Court’s ruling against his own Clean Power Plan in West Virginia v. EPA, Mr. Goffman told the New York Times ‘this case does not really take anything off of the menu we’ve been focused on.’
“The fact that one of the most significant Supreme Court rulings in environmental law and rebukes of EPA authority did not change his regulatory plans affirmed why I strongly oppose his nomination.”
# # #